Boyd Udy interview (transcript)

Ranch Family Oral History Project: Boyd Udy Page 1
RANCH FAMILY DOCUMENTATION PROJECT
TRANSCRIPTION COVER SHEET
Interviewee: Boyd Udy
Place of Interview: ATK Ranch, Promontory, Utah
Date of Interview: May 12, 2011
Interviewer: Randy Williams
Recordist: Randy Williams
Recording Equipment: Marantz digital recorder: model No: PMD660; Shure omnidirectional microphone: model no.MX 183
Transcription Equipment: Power Player Transcription Software: Executive Communication Systems with foot pedal
Transcribed by: Susan Gross
Transcript Proofed by: Randy Williams (13 September 2011); Boyd Udy (1 October 2011)
Brief Description of Contents: Mr. Boyd Udy is the cow boss and ranch manager at the ATK ranch in northern Utah. He talks about his current duties, his past occupations over the years, and ranching in general.
Reference: RW = Randy Williams (Interviewer)
RT = Rosa Thornley (Interviewer)
BU = Boyd Udy (Interviewee)
NOTE: Interjections during pauses or transitions in dialogue such as “uh” and starts and stops in conversations are not included in transcribed. All additions to transcript are noted with brackets.
TAPE TRANSCRIPTION
[00:01]
RW: I’m going to wear these [headphones], just so I can hear –
BU: Okay.
RW: what the machine is hearing. Ranch Family Oral History Project: Boyd Udy Page 2
BU: That’s fine.
RW: So I’m going to be like Fox 13. Okay.
BU: So do you want me to continue what I was telling you about?
RW: Let’s just start, really quick –
BU: Okay.
RW: And we’ll do that. I just want to get the tag. So, it’s the 12th of May, 2011. We’re out here at the ATK Ranch.
BU: Yeah.
RW: I’m not sure what the home ranch, here, is called?
BU: That is – ATK Ranch.
RW: ATK Ranch.
BU: Um-hmm.
RW: With Mr. Boyd Udy – thank you so much.
BU: You’re sure welcome.
RW: Appreciate it; and I’m Randy Williams, with Rosa Thornley. And we’re just going to look – we started off-tape talking a little bit about the history of the place. But before we go back to that, I just thought maybe we could get a little background information on you: your full name, birthday, where you were born, a little about your background.
BU: Okay. I was born in Tremonton [UT], grew up in Fielding. I was born in 1947, 06/06/47 – that’s what that – D Day? Isn’t it D Day, I think?
RT: I don’t know.
BU: Yeah, I think it is. But, yeah I grew up in Fielding. My father has always been involved in ranching and farming. We grew up on a small farm with cattle and horses. My dad farmed with horses up until – oh, probably 10 years before he passed away.
RW: What was your father’s name?
BU: It was Verl, and he grew up in Riverside, also; that’s where the Udy’s are from. As a matter of fact, dad’s great-grandpa come over on the wagon cart in 1854. And my great-great-grandfather (which was a blacksmith), he came over from England, he was a blacksmith. He actually was Brigham Young’s personal blacksmith, and he built the first plow that was ever used in Utah. Ranch Family Oral History Project: Boyd Udy Page 3
RW: Wow!
[02:00]
BU: So we are all blacksmith people. I have a lot of my great-grandfather’s tools – like some things were built out of wagon wheels, and stuff, you know. It’s kind of interesting, but I think that’s part of why we’re all – we’re all horse-shoers, let’s put it that, farriers (or whatever you want to call it).
RW: Um-hmm?
BU: And we all have a blacksmith background. So, but anyway, I grew up there, went to high school, and then I worked for Swan’s Ranches (which is just up the road from here). They headquartered here in the winter and Monte Cristo in the summer. Through my high school years I would go – when high school let out, I would go up there all summer.
RW: What kinds of things would you be doing?
BU: Was fencing and ranching – moving cows. That’s up by Snowbasin and all that was all just open up there; that was part of the Browning’s, originally, too.
RW: Okay. Now, was this ranch that you were working for in your youth – was that part of the Browning’s [Ranch]?
BU: No, it was sold-off from Browning’s.
RW: Okay.
BU: And so – like I would go to work there June, until school started again – for 100 bucks a month.
RW: Was that pretty good money for a young man?
BU: Well, in [19]’63-5 – yeah, probably good money.
RW: Okay.
BU: But I never went anywhere to spend it, so all my friends stayed around here and made money, and they spent it going dating or whatever. I stayed up there the whole time.
RW: What would be the requirements for you to bring? Did you have to bring your own saddle?
BU: My own tack and they furnish the horses. So, we would – a daily deal up there is you would get up at four o’clock, gather the horses (because back then there was no cross fencing up there), and we controlled the cattle by the salt.
[03:44] Ranch Family Oral History Project: Boyd Udy Page 4
RW: Did you do a rope fence? How did you keep track of your horses?
BU: We had a big horse pasture, and we would take and put a bell on one horse –
RW: Um-hmm?
BU: They was running 50 head of horses up there – you leave one horse in the corral, and you’d go out and listen for the bell, and then gather the rest of the horses. And if you brought them in on a walk, it would take you forever to get there (because they would kind of sneak off); so you’d whoop and holler, and send them in. And they’d all run to the corral – it’s just weird how they do that.
But then you would saddle your horse, and usually take four to five pack horses, and load with salt, and then fencing stuff. And that’s what we did every day. There was myself, and an older gentleman by the name of Jim Bailey that worked for Judge Thornley Swan (who owns that ranch). So there’s a lot of history with the Swans out here.
RW: Would you take your food with you, or would you –?
BU: No, they furnished –
RW: Would pack your lunch?
BU: [No.] They had a headquarters, and it was – well, it was called, “Jones’s Cabin” – that’s where Browning’s headquarters was up there [Monte Cristo]. As a matter of fact, it was just an old, log cabin, and on the outside of the wall there, they had a big ring there –
RW: Um-hmm?
BU: They had a pet bear up there for a lot of years; they had him chained to the [big ring on the wall], and they would feed him and stuff. So there’s a lot of history up there.
RW: Did you see that bear?
BU: I didn’t see the bear, but you could see the claw marks, and all that.
RW: Oh, my goodness!
Who would cook for you? Did they have a man, or woman, or family?
BU: Well, Jim Bailey’s wife was there, or you was on your own.
RW: Um-hmm.
BU: The one summer I spent myself, up there alone. And I stayed just in that little Jones’s Cabin. But when it started to getting fall, you’d move into the sheep camp because the walls – the wind would blow through, and the snow would come through, and it was pretty cold. As a matter of fact, the last year I was up there (in ’66), we went out one night late (gathering some cattle, and that), and a big storm moved in, and I got lost up Ranch Family Oral History Project: Boyd Udy Page 5
there and spent the night out. I mean, I knew the country, but when it snows so hard – you can’t see and you can’t find no direction. It was a long night, sitting out all night.
[06:00]
RW: Ooh, I’ll bet.
BU: So, you know, even the old saying, “Your horse will go home”? He couldn’t find home; it was just one of them bad storms.
RW: How did you eventually find your way back?
BU: [My horse and I] just camped under a big pine tree and waited until morning. The worst thing you can do is keep traveling.
RW: And in the morning light you were able to find your way?
BU: Yeah, it quit snowing and I could recognize places. But it snowed about a foot that night.
RW: We were kind of talking about getting lost in the big, open ranges.
BU: It can happen easy. Everybody says, “Oh, you’ll never get lost,” but I mean, I’d worked there for four years and knew that country, but I was lost.
RT: So how did you survive the night? I mean, if it was snowing I imagine it –
BU: Just got under a big pine tree and lit a fire. I was pretty well dressed for it, but not really. It was one of them storms that just come in over. It was just going to be a sort and gather a few cows I’d found; I was just going to bring them to camp, and next thing I know it’s . . . I got really mixed up – I went the wrong ways for quite a ways. But anyhow; but that’s what happened.
RW: A question about getting hired on – I interviewed a gentleman over in Elko County. He works over at the Spanish Ranch – he’s the Cow Boss out there. And I had asked him, “How do you hire somebody if you’re not going to, you know, go on Craig’s List or something that people look for jobs today?” And he explained a little bit about what he does.
How did you get that job? How did somebody know about you?
BU: My older brother rodeoed (and we rodeoed too, but that was before I was in high school), and he kind of met the judge’s daughter – and they was looking for a hand. So I went to work from not knowing them, but they knew our family from the rodeoing, or whatever, and knew we’d deal with horses, or whatever. So that’s how I got that job.
And then from there, I went in the Army after that and kind of got away from the ranching end of it. I always trained horses, or dealed with horses – and I’m a certified Ranch Family Oral History Project: Boyd Udy Page 6
farrier, so I shod a lot of horses (for a lot of years that’s what I did for extra money, part of my job, I was a farrier). At one time I was shoeing, probably 100 horses a month.
RW: Oh, man.
[08:34]
BU: But I mean, to me it was a good job. Its work, but now it’s a good thing. When I was shoeing, we was shoeing for 15-20 bucks a head; now they’re getting $125. It’s just funny how that changes – and that’s the way the economy is right now. Way back then if you – like watch the movie the Cowboys (with John Wayne) – that’s a good classic to me because it shows them kids, they had to prove their self they could ride rope and move cows. And it was talking that big cattle were worth 15 to 17 to 20 bucks a head.
At this point right now, cattle are higher right now than they’ve ever been. As a matter of fact, when you get a dollar out of a Holstein steer – a dollar a pound – that’s a lot of money. So you’re going to see 800 to 850 for your fall calves weighing 575 to 600 this fall. So the rancher is going to make money this year. But the downfall on the other thing is you’ve got the price of fuel, your hay is really high right now – so everything you do is cost, plus.
RW: Um-hmm.
BU: So when you make money, it seems like everything is up; so after it’s all paid, you’ve got the same amount of – so you have to be pretty careful. I’ve watched a lot of ranchers – and you’ve probably seen that in Park Valley – they make a lot of money, so down the road a ways they buy a new truck, a new tractor, and before long they can’t pay the bills. So I grew up with my dad – he grew up in the [depression], that time he saved everything.
And we worked – dad, and mom, and everybody was on the farm. I remember growing up mom was always out in the field with us. And they had the old balers back then – dad would mow the hay with a number seven McCormick mower, we’d rake with the horses, and then grandpa had an old baler. The women would have to sit on each side of it, and stuff wires through it, and twist it; that’s how it done it. I mean, they had a vent thing they put over their head because of all that dust.
RW: Hmm.
[10:56]
BU: But through the winter, we’d spend time in the barn, straightening them wires and twist them out so they could re-use them.
RT: Um-hmm.
BU: Now they don’t even use nothing like that. [And don’t have time to use it.] Now it’s big stuff, and fast. Ranch Family Oral History Project: Boyd Udy Page 7
RW: Were they smaller bales?
BU: Yeah, they were the small bales.
RW: The small bales?
BU: The 75 pounders.
RW: It’s interesting – my grandparents built a house with used nails that they straightened, and old boards – and you wouldn’t hear of anybody doing that today.
BU: No.
RW: He built a whole, little house out of recycled stuff.
BU: I can believe that. When I came here – Al Sylvester [was the prior foreman for ATK]. In the shop out here was buckets and buckets [of old rust] nails. He never bought nothing new. The old square nuts and bolts and stuff –he would straighten nails and everything; he didn’t throw nothing away. And when I came here, things had to change. [My] bosses said “you’re working for a company now, they want it cleaned up.” So we threw a lot of that stuff away. Because, it takes more time to fix it [with old stuff] but back then, that’s how you did it.
RW: Right. Well let’s bring yourself up to you’re a young man, and you went off to the Army (or the Armed Serviced).
BU: Um-hmm.
RW: When you came back –between that time, and working for this corporation – what were you doing?
BU: Okay, when I got out of the Army, my brother and I – we had some trucks, and we hauled hay for people. We’d go out and buy the hay from the farmers, and deliver it to ranchers, or whatever. And then we kind of got away from that, and then we both went to work at Thiokol. And that’s when I started shoeing horses, because the hauling hay is a lot of work; shoeing horses is too, but I enjoy shoeing horses better than the hay.
[12:50]
Prior to Thiokol, I worked construction for quite a while. I worked for JB Parsons in Ogden, and I run anything from a Caterpillar to a road grader, or whatever. But then I got tired of working through the summers, and having the winter off. So I had an opportunity to come to Thiokol in 1970, and I was just going to work through the winter, and here I am. So 41 years later, I am still working for ATK – Thiokol to me.
RW: So when you say started working for Thiokol – on the ranch?
BU: No, I didn’t come here until ’89. Ranch Family Oral History Project: Boyd Udy Page 8
RW: I see.
BU: But I worked over there – I worked in the development labs, and –
RW: Okay.
BU: And insulation design – we did the insulation for all the rocket motors and stuff.
RW: How did you make the transition from working on the rocket motors, to managing one of the –
BU: The ranches?
RW: Ranches?
BU: This job came open when [when Al Sylvester] was going to retire, and so they put it on the [job] board over there, and you could apply for – there was like 200 people applied for this job.
RW: What was the job announcement? What was the title?
BU: Well, it was just a ranch manager, to come out and maintain it. This place does not own cattle; we just lease this property out to the ranchers. And so we have to make sure you take care of the grounds, you know, do your fencing and then keep track of the number of cows here, your AUMs [Animal Units monthly].
RW: Um-hmm.
BU: So this is a winter pasture, so they come in the fall and leave in the spring.
RW: So ATK owns the land, is there any BLM –
BU: No.
RW: Or any Forest lands?
BU: There’s 7,000 acres here, and it’s all privately owned.
RW: Okay.
BU: The reason that this place is owned by ATK is the water. This is where the water goes to supply all the water over at the plant.
RW: Okay.
[14:46] Ranch Family Oral History Project: Boyd Udy Page 9
BU: And it’s got 24 flowing wells here. And the water from here – there is a big well here; it’s called the Sandall well– pumps up the road. As you’re coming down the road, you’ve probably seen a silver tank there, by Wilson’s?
RW: Yes.
BU: It goes to there, and from there it’s pumped up to the big tower on the mountain. There’s a big tower up there, a million gallon tank up there. And from there, it is gravity fed from there, over to Thiokol. So it’s all pipe. But the spring going into the storage tank up there, it runs 200 gallon a minute out of the spring.
RW: Wow.
BU: So it’s really good water; that’s a lot of water. As a matter of fact, that used to be called the [Smith place] before Thiokol bought the place, Sandals owned this. And prior to Sandals, there was a guy buy the name of Smith, and he used to have a big orchard there, and they used to have apples, peaches, and that. And so all the people at the Golden Spike, when that was over there, when that was a lot of people over there – they would come over and buy all their fruit, and that, from this place. That’s why they – they raised a lot of fruit in this country.
RW: I see.
BU: It’s hard to believe – it’s a desert – but there’s a lot of water here.
RW: Um-hmm.
BU: So that’s the reason that Thiokol owns it.
RW: I see. When Rose and I first got here, you guys were talking a little bit about the pre-history of this place, before ATK, and it sounds like this was probably the Browning ranches?
BU: Yes.
RW: So, can you tell me a little bit about that history, or that connection?
[16:15]
BU: Okay. At one time Brownings owned all this country; they had the money to buy it. They put a foreman at this ranch, there would be a foreman at the Fort ranch, there was one in Howell, and in Connor Springs there’s one; there’s one in Mantua, and one up in Ogden. And so they run a bundle of cattle here; cattle and pigs. As a matter of fact, what’s interesting – from Monte Cristo, they drove 50,000 pigs from there, to here. Can you imagine? And see, there’s a right of way right through Brigham City. There’s still a cattle right of way to drive cattle down, through them highways.
RW: Um-hmm? Ranch Family Oral History Project: Boyd Udy Page 10
BU: But they drove them cattle from there, down to here. And sheep – or pigs; can you imagine herding pigs?
RT: No, not pigs.
BU: I can’t either, but they did that. But it’s interesting, but they all had these little ranches. And Al Sylvester (who was here, working for Brownings) – matter of fact, he got out of the World War because he worked for Brownings. Because Brownings – they developed the Browning’s Arms.
RW: Um-hmm.
BU: The pistol, and the M-1 rifle, and all that. So, he stayed here at that time, but Al would tell me he used to saddle a horse here, and ride from here to Mantua. He would get up at four o’clock, saddle his horse, and ride to Mantua, work cattle, and come back. I mean, you think about that – that’s 40 miles.
RT: So where would he have taken that –
BU: Before the bird refuge, there was a road down there that went straight through, or there was fences. And so, this is kind of neat to me – you’ve heard cowboys talk about their Levi jacket? They’d call it a “jumper.” And so what they’d do, is they’d ride up to a fence, and there was no gates so they’d take their [jacket] off and lay it on the top wire of the fence, back up, and jump it. That’s why they called it a jumper.
RW: Umm.
[18:18]
BU: So they can just keep going, they never have to go find a gate. You imagine people doing that now? Not really. He used to ride a lot of horses here. He claimed that he would wear a saddle out a year. I mean, that’s a lot – he put a lot of miles on horses.
RW: It’s interesting – one of the gentlemen I interviewed, one of the things he always asks people is how long they’ve had their saddle; and if they’ve had it a long time, he doesn’t want to have anything to do with them [laughs]. Because he figures, if you work hard, you’re going to wear out a saddle.
BU: You do; you know you can wear them out. Mine – well, I build saddles, so I never wear one out: I sell it [and build] another one. [I like to build and ride a new saddle.] As a matter of fact, I got a grant from the state of Utah [Arts Council to work with a saddle maker and build a saddle].
RW: Folk Arts Program?
BU: Um-hmm.
RW: Craig [Miller] and Carol [Edison]? Ranch Family Oral History Project: Boyd Udy Page 11
BU: It was a grant from the Utah State – they have folklore and stuff like that; so I got a grant to build saddles –
RW: For the apprenticeship program?
BU: Yep, that’s what it is.
RW: Um-hmm.
BU: And I did that – oh, 15 years ago, I guess.
RW: That’s great.
BU: Because I’ve always built saddles, or whatever, and it just gives me an opportunity to go work with a guy to learn more.
RW: Who did you work with?
BU: With Clay Nicholas, in Corinne. It was a good deal.
RW: That’s awesome.
BU: But from that, I was able to – I ride my saddles, and all my kids have a saddle I built for them; so someday they can’t fight who gets mine.
RW: You’re quite accomplished; I mean, because there’s so much more to ranching than just riding on a horse and checking cattle –
BU: Oh, yeah.
RW: There’s all the gear; and so being able to shoe a horse, and build a saddle, and build a fence – that’s quite a lot of –
BU: Well, you go – as a buckaroo anywhere – if you go somewhere, it’s not if you can ride a horse; you’ve got to be able to repair something – you’re out somewhere, you’ve got to fix it. You’ve got to shoe a horse, because it’s like your car without a tire. And, you’ve got to be a half a mechanic, you’ve got to . . . know a lot about chemicals (for your cattle), and what you can use, and what you can’t use; you half got to be part of a vet. Because we do stuff [like doctor cattle], c-sections and all that – you can’t afford to have the vet do it, [you do it yourself].
[20:46]
RW: When you made the transition out here, did you still have children at home – you and your wife?
BU: Um-hmm. Ranch Family Oral History Project: Boyd Udy Page 12
RW: So, how was that transition, coming? Were you more in – were you living right in Tremonton?
BU: Right in Tremonton. I just come out of a divorce; my wife was just out of a divorce. So that was in ’88. Then in ’89 I got this job. And when I brought my wife out, Kris (who is my wife right now), she says, “I’m not living out here,” because it’s a long ways. We call it “70 miles for a gallon of milk.” If you forget the milk, by the time you drive 35 miles back in, and back – it’s 70 miles for a gallon of milk.
So, but anyhow – she loves it here; she hates the drive. We had the little branch out here – we was really a tight community. And we kind of lost [our little branch church] – nothing against [the Church] – we just have progress is all. [But it really hurt our community.]
RW: Tell me a little bit about that – you’re talking about a LDS branch?
BU: Yes.
RW: Tell me a little bit about that – what are the boundaries? Who all would go? What was the –?
BU: It was just Promontory, right here. There was a few came from – the Paulsen’s would come on out. And then there was the people down on the point; so at one time, there was maybe 40 members. [Speaking to Rosa] You guys used to come out here all the time.
RW: Where did you meet? Did you have a meeting [house]?
BU: We had a chapel down here; it would hold like 54 people. And so everybody had a ton of jobs, because there was – I was in the branch presidency, so I taught the young men from there on up, all through their years. And my wife was in the young women’s. It was fun.
RW: Did you have any children here, with you?
[22:41]
BU: Yep, I did; I had three. I had my oldest boy and Kris’ two children.
RW: Did the kids go into Tremonton to school?
BU: Yes.
RW: On a school bus, or did you have to run them in?
BU: No, when we first moved here, there was enough children here that the bus picked them up here. And then it got down to just our kids, so I’d have to drive to Connor Springs with them, night and morning. So, we’d get up, and they’d have to get on a bus at 6:30 [am]. So it was tough. And from living out here, they didn’t get to be in sports, and all Ranch Family Oral History Project: Boyd Udy Page 13
that, because they just couldn’t. They had to come home, and – but it’s not a bad thing; they all know how to work.
And they’ve went without a lot of things, but I don’t know that that’s a bad thing. They all know how to ride a horse; they all know how to work. My dad was a teamster, and I’m a teamster; I like to drive horses, and my kids all know how to harness a horse (which is something a lot of people don’t even have a clue). But it’s been good.
RT: So, when you talk about the kids – is Tyrell involved out here, in the ranch?
BU: He helps me a lot, yeah. He’s working in Ogden right now, down to – for Weber County. So he drives from here to Ogden – but he likes it here. And he’s a good help; he’s a good farrier.
RT: Where did you learn? Did you apprentice under someone?
BU: I did, but my father was the biggest one. I was 12, and dad was busy, and he always shod our horses. And I said, “My pony is sore footed.” And he said, “There’s the tools, go to work; you’ve watched me enough.” And so I just started from there, and then he helped me along (but I had to prove to him that I was willing to do it). And so I shod horses, and then I went to Utah State, and I went to California for awhile and shod with a guy. And just – that’s where I got it.
[24:44]
It’s an art. It’s like anything – it’s like painting to – you have to have a want to do it. And some people it’s very easy for them, some people it’s a lot of work, it’s really hard. For me to try to teach Tyrell was a job, because it’s a feel thing, you can’t just – like you watch kids shoe horses, and the first thing they push really hard on a rasp, or you know, they know how to trim flat – the harder you push, the harder work it is, and it doesn’t do good. So it’s just an art. It’s like building a saddle; there’s a lot into a saddle, more than people think there is. If you’re going to ride it all day, you want it to be comfortable [laughs].
So, that’s kind of where we come from. But when we moved here the kids, and since I been here I do the cattle for the Utah Cow Cutting Association.
RW: What does that entail?
BU: The Utah Cow Cutting Association, it’s all over Utah and Wyoming, they have five shows a year, I have to get the cattle lined up. And that’s my job, is the cattle. So I’d go down with my kids – used to use my kids because they could make a little money, and they met a lot of nice people from it.
But we’d take the cattle to the show. Bart Sorensen (from Howell) and I work together. He does the trucking, and I go and take care of the cattle. And so the cutting – we’ll use, maybe in the fall we’ll use 3,000 head of cattle; so we have to sort these cattle off, check for bad eyes, no lame, or whatever. Then you put them in a [cutting pen]: there’s ten Ranch Family Oral History Project: Boyd Udy Page 14
cutters in a class, and they use three cows per cutter (so there’s 30 head of cattle). So we‘ve got to make sure them 30 head cattle. What it is, is cow cutting like that, you take a cow, and you separate it and keep it away from the herd. And so from that, the cow has got to be sound, or whatever – it’s a money sport and the cow cutters have a lot of money that do it, usually. And it’s a great sport – it’s like polo; rich people have fun ways [laughs]. But still a lot of the cowboys play that game, or whatever.
We [have done it] through the years. And from that my kids have meet a lot of people. And then we high school rodeoed – that was part of the highlight of my life is my kids going to high school rodeo.
RW: What’s your daughter’s name?
[27:24]
BU: Jessica. But we pull in my old, wore out Chevy truck, and an old, wore out trailer. And other kids and their dads, they’ve got their trainers there, and their fancy trailers, and that. But we could compete with them, so it was fun for us. And my kids all enjoyed it, and they met a lot of friends that they wouldn’t have met otherwise.
RW: One of the things I’ve noticed, interviewing ranchers, is the distance – a neighbor could be a long way away, but you’re still neighborly, and throughout the whole state (a lot of times), ranch families – because of 4-H, or rodeo, or fairs – seem really –
BU: Yeah. A lot of it is just like at the fair – and where Rosa’s from Park Valley, she knows. When the fair was on, everybody went to the fair, and stayed – didn’t they, pretty well? All the kids used – did you stay in there, the school?
RT: I was raised in Tremonton; my dad was from Park Valley.
BU: That’s right.
RT: But I mean, the place just empties out that week of the fair; nobody –
BU: Yeah, you just lived there, didn’t you?
RT: Nobody’s left in Park Valley.
BU: And that’s the way the high school rodeoing was. And it’s interesting how high school rodeo – it was always – I think it was started in ’61 (the association). When I was in high school, in ’63 to ’65. . . The high school rodeo in Utah was started at Box Elder County fairgrounds, in Tremonton. It started out as a three day event – that was it. Now they rodeo every weekend, them kids. I mean, anymore to take your kid and go high school rodeo, you’re spending a lot of money because you have to go to so many rodeos to qualify for state.
RW: Hmm. Ranch Family Oral History Project: Boyd Udy Page 15
BU: But at that time they wouldn’t let us call it the high school rodeo; we was the Utah Championship Rodeo, because they said it was too rough of a sport. We had to fight it, but anyhow, they let it go back into it. It’s not as tough as football; I mean, to me rodeo is dangerous, football is dangerous, anything is dangerous. But if you’re pretty well prepared, you have a better chance of not getting hurt. It’s like if you’ve never ridden a horse, or something, you need to be prepared; you just can’t get on, you know, with no direction.
So I think the state of Utah is like – it’s like Texas, they have so many rodeos that Utah is number two in the world for high school rodeo people. Same with Texas.
RW: That’s interesting, I didn’t know that.
[30:09]
BU: Yeah, it is. It’s a cool thing. There’s – what is there, 21 affiliates to it right now? So it’s a big deal.
RW: What all events did your kids participate in?
BU: Tyrell – he was going to be a bull rider, but he decided that wasn’t fun [laughs], which is good. They pretty well did the team roping and the cow cutting. [Jessica just cow cutting.]
RW: Hmm.
BU: When I grew up we rodeoed, I rode saddle broncs and bulls and then bull dogged a lot. As a matter of fact, I won the state bull-dogging championship in ’65. But that was back then, we bull-dogged old red, bawly cows [laughs]. But that’s how that’s changed.
But my life has been around a horse – I mean, I get on a horse everyday as it is, now. That’s my love, okay – or drive a team. I feed with a team in the winter. Do I have to? No.
RW: What is your team made up of?
BU: They’re Belgian-Haflinger crosses, because I didn’t need a great, big team, and I wanted a smaller team. And it works really good for us, but it’s just because I have a love for it. My father was that way. As a matter of fact, I am driving with his harness.
RW: Hmm.
BU: My father would have been 91 this year; he bought that harness when he was 15 – so its 76 years old, and it’s still in as good of shape as when dad bought it. You’ll think this is funny, but every morning I harness that team in the winter – I know my father is in the barn, and he says, “That ring on that horse is crooked.” (Because he is terrible about that.) So I haven’t harnessed them right yet. But he is always in the barn, telling me I need to straighten it or something. Ranch Family Oral History Project: Boyd Udy Page 16
RW: What do you do to keep it supple? What kind of treatment to you give it?
BU: You know the biggest thing on a harness will last a long, long time because harness leather is built with a wax covering, and it’s oiled. You have to keep them oiled, and that, to keep them supple. But the biggest thing is use.
RW: Hmm.
BU: What’s the worst thing for leather is just hanging, and it dries out. But like, dad – when we grew up, every fall, the harness had to go to be [cleaned and oiled] – they would heat up a barrel of oil, and it was harness oil back then (you can’t buy it now), but they would heat it up under a big milk container (or a washtub) –
RW: Um-hmm.
BU: And then they would dip it in and let it soak, and then let it hang and drip out.
RW: So what do you do today?
[32:54]
BU: I heat the oil up – first of all I take it to the car wash and clean it really good – that’s the secret to leather.
RW: Really?
BU: Yeah. If you have a piece of leather that’s really dry and you say, “Well, I’ll oil it up, and I’ll soften it.” Well, really it won’t; it will still break. Maybe you can find a piece of old leather in an old barn, or something, and bend it and it will break? You take that, and put it in some warm water, and let it kind of get the moisture back into it. [Then oil it.]
RW: Um-hmm.
BU: Leather is just like our skin, you’ve got to get some moisture in it first, right? So the moisture softens it up; let it almost dry, and then put oil on it.
RT: What’s the oil made out of?
BU: Actually, the oil – pure neatsfoot is what it is, is the oil that is taken out of the leather when they tan it. That’s why you [put] a natural component back in. A lot of people use pure virgin oil, because it’s natural oil. Your concentrated oils they actually harm leather more than they help them. So you want to make sure you use a pure neatsfoot, or whatever. But dirt and dust is the worst thing on saddle’s leather.
RW: So that’s why you’re washing it at the carwash – to get the dirt off?
BU: Yeah, yeah it cleans it. But yeah, I’m pretty proud of that old harness.
RW: I’d like a picture of that. Ranch Family Oral History Project: Boyd Udy Page 17
BU: It’s out in the barn.
RW: I’d like a picture of you at the carwash.
BU: Oh!
[Laughing]
RW: People will see you drive in–
BU: Oh, [laughs] that’s ironic because I have a friend that (he’s in Arizona now), he was up in this country, up to Sherwood Hills [in Sardine Canyon], and they had that wagon ride– that chuck wagon ride. [And I would help with the horses and drive.]
RT: Um-hmm.
BU: Well I used to go up there every summer, and help him drive the horses up there.
RW: Was it the Havilands?
BU: Yeah, yeah; Shane and Troy.
RW: Uh-huh.
BU: They’re really good friends of mine.
RW: Are they?
BU: Yeah; matter of fact, Shane helps me with the cow cutting all the time.
RW: Does he?
BU: Yeah. They are pretty good people.
RW: They are good people.
[35:05]
BU: Shane is one of these guys (he trains a lot of horses) he’s the only one that I would recommend to somebody. If you send a horse to Shane Haviland, you’re going to pay for 30 days riding, you know, a month’s riding? You will get 30 rides. Most of these trainers they saddle them for 10 minutes, and charge you for, you know – it’s wrong.
RW: I love his place out there. I took a group of people with the American Folklore Society here, a few years back, and we always do tours. And one of the stops we went is out to Shane’s place.
BU: He’s just a cool guy, isn’t he? Ranch Family Oral History Project: Boyd Udy Page 18
RW: Yeah.
BU: Yeah, he’s rodeoing right now, [laughs] big time. As a matter of fact, I owe him one [good cussing!]
[Laughs]
He conned me into judging the queen contest at Logan. And you know, I thought, “I’ll judge a queen contest,” and being dumb, or whatever, I didn’t think about this change from when I’d judge queen contest. It used to be like the fair – you’d go in, and they’d go to the queen contest, the girls would bring their horse in, they’d saddle them up, and they’d run a riding pattern, and wave at the crowd. And that’s what you’d judge them on.
Now, is leather dresses, and the whole ten yards; I felt right out of place because I was there with Miss Rodeo Wyoming, Miss Rodeo Utah, Miss Rodeo Idaho, and the head director of the Wyoming high [laughs] school rodeo. And then there’s this rancher (me) sitting over there.
RW: [Laughs]
BU: But it worked alright. But to me that’s a change that’s – really the girl that (in my opinion) a rodeo queen should be a girl that can ride, rope, whatever. That’s what it used to be. Now it’s – they have to be able to ride, but they also have to spend a lot of money to be part of the game.
RW: What do you mean by that?
BU: They used to wear a pair of Levi’s and a nice shirt, and that would work; now you’ve got to have $2,500 to $5,000 leather dresses, and you’ve got to be a model, and all that stuff. So, it was a good experience for me, but the girls – they’ve been really schooled on what to do. But I did trick them on a trick question. I asked them, “How tight does your cornet band have to be on your horse?”
And some of them says, “Well, let’s see – if it hangs below its ears, and it can’t be too tight, or it gets a headache.”
Cornet band goes right around the hairline on his hoof; and it can’t be tightened, that’s just how it is. That’s just a Cornet band, so.
RW: They didn’t even know?
[37:51]
BU: Some of them did, yeah; I was shocked. As a matter of fact, out of the ten girls they all knew what it was, but one girl. The one girl I figured would know that was the girl that didn’t.
RW: Did you see some good riders? Ranch Family Oral History Project: Boyd Udy Page 19
BU: Yes, yeah. They are good riders. But they speak really well; they’re eloquent in their speech. “You’re at the Bridgerland Rodeo, what are you going to do to introduce the rodeo to the people?” So they have to come up with something, you know. They had a hat, and it was around Easter time, you know. So they had to come out and put it together for a talk for their – I don’t know what you want to call it now. But it was interesting to me.
RW: Out here is there any – it sounds like (from what you said earlier) you’re working for a corporation, but you’re working with individual ranchers, who are [leasees from ATK.]
BU: Yes ma’am.
RW: Leasing the land; how does that work? What is that equilibrium like?
BU: Well, normally in our country you pay an AUM (which is cow-per-month), okay?
RW: Um-hmm.
BU: And in our country, you’ll spend anywhere from $20-25 a month, per cow. And that’s to go on the greens, and that’s if you don’t feed them any hay. And the way we set it up here, is a cow takes 30 pounds of feed a day to maintain her through the winter. So like, if I had the cows out here, and they’re on straight grass (which normally we do), they pay $30 or 25 (or whatever we set up that amount was). And if say we have a lot of snow, and that, and we feed hay like we do –
RW: Um-hmm.
BU: So, say we feed a quarter of hay, the feed – we cut the price of the feed down a quarter. So like, rather than pay 40 bucks, for example, you’re only paying 30 bucks for the ground because you’re feeding them that other 10 bucks worth of hay.
RW: Are they doing their own hay, or is it –?
BU: Yeah – no, they bring their own hay.
RW: Okay.
BU: And that’s what this place is so great about, is there’s – we supplement with hay. A lot of people use supplement tubs, or cake block, or a mineral, and that. But in our deal out here, with the Adams’ we’ve found through experience, you can find top-quality hay, and feed them 10 pounds of hay cheaper, and they’ll do better than if you try to just give them minerals.
So it’s like you drinking a lot of mineral water. You’ve still got to have the roughage to get your ruminant and that going. And so with the team, we go out through these fields, where it’s kind of tooly, and it’s kind of not really easy to access. But I can get there with a team, so we go feed in that tall grass. So it maintains my fields, by getting rid of the old, Ranch Family Oral History Project: Boyd Udy Page 20
tall wheat grass that I need to get clipped off. So we control that with the cattle, with a little bit of feed.
And actually, the cattle do better with a little alfalfa. [You see] them all the time, so you see them come close to calving. You go out and feed and if there’s a cow off, you know you got trouble.
[41:24]
RW: So are the folks that are leasing the ground – you sound like you’re feeding and watching – do they have any cowboys out here?
BU: Yeah, they do, they do. I really – my job is just to maintain the fences, take care of this place, and make sure they go where they’re supposed to go. I really don’t have to help them unless I want to.
RW: I see.
BU: But that’s the part I like; I like to calf cows. And so you’ll hear my – I have a cowbell on my wagon, so when we leave the yard the cows know we’re coming. It’s an old trick I learned when I was running horses. It’s amazing – you go out there and rattle that bell, and all the cows will be at the gate.
RW: It’s amazing, bells, I think. We did an exhibit a year and a half ago, and traced back animal bells almost 5,000 years that people have been using bells on an animal.
BU: Yeah.
RW: It’s amazing to me.
BU: It is; you look at all – there’s a bell on everything.
RW: Um-hmm.
BU: I mean, if you got a knot-headed horse, hang the bell on him and he gets better about it.
RW: Um-hmm.
BU: [Laughing] [Put a bell on one horse so you could wrangle them in the horse pasture by the bell sound.] We had one old horse that we had, that we couldn’t put the bell back on him – he got too smart, and he wouldn’t move his head – he’d just stand there and wouldn’t ring it.
[Laughing]
You know, so you couldn’t find him. [Laughing] Its funny how at every ranch, everybody has the old fooler horse. Judge Swan [the ranch I worked on] he was a judge for the Utah State Supreme [Court] – and so he’d bring [to his ranch] a lot of [people] like, Hod Sanders (Clover Club potato chips) – bring that kind of people up there, that Ranch Family Oral History Project: Boyd Udy Page 21
had never been around animals. And he’d say [phone ringing] “Go catch Old Fooler.” And so we’d go catch him. And depending on the person – we had Old Fooler [for them] and then we had an old mule that we’d put them on. And Old Fooler would usually buck somebody off, you know. It’s just what cowboys do, you know.
RW: Pranksters?
BU: Yeah, prankster. And then they had an old mule that –
[Ringing sound]
You could get on him and you could ride him. And you could never turn him, when you was on him. If you wanted to turn him, and go right – you had to get off, turn him right, and then he’d go straight. Everywhere you went, he’d go straight, but you could never turn him when you was on him. So he was funny. He’d just go right through the ponds, and that – whatever; he wouldn’t turn. But we’d put people on – it’s funny how they do that.
RW: [Laughing]
BU: Cowboys are – cowboy families are quite pranksters.
RW: Yes.
[44:04]
RW: Why do you think they’re pranksters?
BU: Cowboys? It’s just – I think it’s no different than any other person: we like to laugh. I think farm people, or ranchers, or country people have more enjoyment in laughing, than city people. I don’t think we’re quite as serious on life as we’re out there to make a living, but we also can enjoy life a little. I know I always said that, “Dad always had time to stop and talk to the neighbor.” I catch myself too busy to stop and talk – which I really am not.
And that’s just like – a good example is our little branch down here. The guy that has the animals for the movies. His name is – it slipped me; I’ve got it written down. But I had him come out and talk at our church. And he was talking about he had to have the lambs, and the goats, and the pigs, and all this. And they needed a pure white lamb for that deal, and he couldn’t find one. The next morning his black-faced ewe had a pure white-faced lamb for that movie. But I mean that kind of gives you a testimony of the church.
But anyhow, what was ironic as he was talking about these animals that our Heavenly Father has put down here for us to use, and how they use in them the movies. Well, the neighbor down here, Gary Pettit (he doesn’t attend church), and he had a heifer in trouble – she was a hip locked, and he didn’t have a pair of pullers. So he comes to church and wants to borrow my pullers, so we just left church in our suits, and go and pull a calf, and then come back to church. I mean, that’s just the way farm people are. Ranch Family Oral History Project: Boyd Udy Page 22
RW: Uh-huh.
BU: I don’t think you would see that in town. They wouldn’t go out there in their suit and help somebody.
[46:14]
RW: Rosa and I were kind of talking about that on the way out here, just the tight, inner-connection.
BU: Yeah.
RW: And I wonder – I’ve always wondered about the pranking, and we were talking a little bit about the chivaree that’s done over in Park Valley – just seems to me the tighter, and the more you rely on each other, you have to almost test each other a little bit, to make sure you can rely on that person – if they’re going to take a joke.
BU: True.
RW: Or if they’re not going to take a joke; maybe that’s not the person you’re going to be able to rely on all the time.
BU: Yeah – you want to know which one is going to blow up and hit you [laughs]. But that’s just part of being a cowboy. When I worked for that one ranch, Jim Bailey, we’d leave at four o’clock in the morning and go salt, we’d be gone until – sometimes even until dark coming down. But coming down the trail, he said, “The last one home has to wash the dishes” or “The last one there has to wash the dishes.” So no matter what, we’d have to climb a tree, or I’d get off and lock the gates, or undo a gate or something so we could get through, and then he’d take off, and he’d go to the next gate and wait for me to get there and unlock it for him. And then he’d always beat to me to the house; so I had to do the dishes all the time.
But that’s just the way [laughs] he was, always a prank. Or like, going up into that ranch – there was one road in, and there was like four gates you have to cross. Then he would drive up there, and I’d get out and undo the gate, and he would drive up to the next gate (which was a quarter mile away) and wait for me. And I never did get smart enough to jump on the back of the truck – because he would take off too quick. But he always was pulling a prank on us.
[47:55]
My dad was a prankster; he liked to laugh a lot. That’s how I always found my father –
RW: Follow the laughter?
BU: Yeah, we’d go to a rodeo, and I could find my dad because I could hear him laughing. And one thing I will say about my father and my mother: they are my father and my Ranch Family Oral History Project: Boyd Udy Page 23
mother. You’ll never hear me calling them, “The old man,” or, “the old lady,” ever. And I’m thankful for my dad to instill that in me.
RW: What was your mother’s name?
BU: Edith. She grew up in Malad. She came from quite a wealthy family up there. At one time they owned all of Devil’s Creek. But her folks died when she was quite young, and so she grew up just with people, you know; just relatives, whatever.
RW: What was her family name?
BU: Her name was Owens. She was related to all the Evans up there in Malad. But mom was a hard worker. One thing I can say for my dad – we would always go to a rodeo, or wherever – he might have wore out boots on, but we had new ones.
RW: Hmm.
BU: And mom always made sure we had plenty to eat. We didn’t have [wealth]; we didn’t know we [were poor.] [Laughs] Christmas at our house was if you got an apple, and an orange, and a banana, and new pair of underwear, you was pretty happy. But we didn’t care. There was five children in my family.
RW: Are any of your – you mentioned your older brother was involved in the ranch at some point, ranching – have any other siblings been involved?
BU: No, they don’t do the ranching part. They raise races horses; so they’ve always done that. I did it for a lot of years; that’s my father right there [picture on the wall]. That’s the last picture of his team, running to Pocatello (that’s where he passed away). But it’s something – it’s a sport, it’s a great thing. And we’ve done quite well at our family. As a matter of fact, my nephew won the World this year, which is a good thing.
RW: That’s a great thing!
BU: So dad has always instilled – and anybody will tell you, when my father was around, and he passed on to us – our horses are always clean, and they’re always groomed. If you want to get your fanny kicked with my dad, just go somewhere with your horse dirty. That was a no-no, period. I mean, they had to be brushed off, clean. He used to spend hours – I remember (this is before he passed away; well, before we put him in a nursing home – he had Alzheimer’s) he had a work team. As a matter of fact, it’s a team that Troy Haviland had, that he worked over there – the grey team.
RW: Um-hmm?
BU: That was my dad’s last team. They drove across the stage and all that [at Logan at the Festival of the American West]; the thing that they had on the theater.
RW: Yeah, okay. Ranch Family Oral History Project: Boyd Udy Page 24
BU: That was dad’s last team. But he used to spend hours out there, just brushing and currying them. He used to use a curry comb, and a brush, then he’d tap the curry comb on the brush, and the brushes were always wore out where he’d hit them. But he would spend hours, and hours; that was his thing. And he drove that team up until he just couldn’t do it no more. But we should have made him keep doing it because when that – he wanted to sell the team, he said he didn’t need them. And we should have never done it, because that’s when he really went downhill.
[51:29]
But he went on that Centennial wagon ride, and that was cool stuff. So we, I guess, with my grandfather, was all horsemen. All my family, all my dad’s family are horse people.
RW: What kind of horses did your grandfather, or your father ride?
BU: They rode a lot of work cross horses, you know. They had a lot of shire work horses; they had a lot of Persians and Belgians. And then they would cross and get a lighter shire horse; they rode a lot of shires. Because back then, a work team was like – my horse is as big right now, as that team were. But they would drive them, and then ride them also. We grew up on work horses; that’s how we rode, until we started rodeoing, and then we had to have a little better horses, a little faster. And I guess I still have one mare that’s half draft, so. And I raise colts every year, so she’s got a cross in her [like dad did].
RW: How many colts do you raise a year?
BU: I used to raise a lot of them. The stallion I have, I showed him a lot, we’ve won a lot with him, and it’s good. But the colts in the horse industry now is not worth nothing. A good, broke horse is worth a lot, but a colt’s not worth nothing because they stop the meat market on horses.
And I love horses too, but I think what’s the worst – to see them, like my neighbor up the road here (I’m not going to mention names) his horses are starving to death. I hate that. But what’s the most humane? Let him starve to death up here, or send him to a meat market where they send them to France, and eat them? I mean, I don’t want to eat a horse.
What’s the hardest on an animal – to see one that’s so suffering, he can’t get up or down– do you just let him suffer every day, or do you put him down, or what? I don’t know? I put my down, so. When they get to where they can’t get around, then we dig a hole, and we have a burial. But you see – how many animals have you seen that their backbones are sticking up, and they [need to be put down].
RW: Umm, um-hmm.
RT: Yeah.
[53:48] Ranch Family Oral History Project: Boyd Udy Page 25
BU: You know, dogs, cats and – that’s my wife has 900 cats because she brings everything home that’s out there.
[Laughing]
Quit your laughing, Rosa!
[Laughing]
RW: Yeah, there’s nothing sadder to see an abused, or malnourished animal.
BU: Didn’t He make the animal on the fifth day?
RT: Is that right?
BU: Which day did He make them?
RT: I don’t remember.
BU: I think it’s the fifth day, isn’t it?
RT: Just before us?
BU: Um-hmm, or the fourth day; one of the two. I can’t remember. There’s your trick question; I want an answer for Sunday if I get to church.
[Laughing]
RT: Oh, I’m on it.
[Laughing]
BU: I think it’s the fifth day.
RW: Well, when you’re out here doing the managerial – has that been a natural evolution for you? Or was that something that you felt like you, when you first started, one of the things that you needed to learn? Or did you feel like the previous experience working for ranches, and doing all the other, kind of associated things to ranching, you were prepared? Or how was that transition to come here and work?
BU: It was different because I was a working cowboy all the time before this. Now you have [ranch knowledge] and you’ve always kept records, whatever, but now you’ve got to be in charge, and run under another direction. Like the people I work for at ATK, they never check up on me, they just tell me to do it. So they must trust me. But I work on a budget. Every ranch has a budget you’ve got to stay with – it’s like a household; you have to stay under a budget, if you don’t, you’re in trouble. That’s what’s wrong with the world right now, is we all have a bigger “want” list than we do a “need” list. Ranch Family Oral History Project: Boyd Udy Page 26
And that’s why you see most of your old ranches that still you run in today – they have been run under a tight rein. I look at the Adams’s, I look at the Sandals, the Roses, you know, and the Palmers – all of them out there. I think the ones that are still running now, have kept that tradition: to only do what you need, and not what you want.
[56:09]
Any more, we don’t have the time to – I mean, Al Sylvester [the ranch manger before me] rode a horse everywhere. But, like to go check waters and that – if you have a lot of them, it’s quicker to jump on the four-wheeler and go check it and get back [because it is faster today]. But when dad was growing up, when I was growing up in school, I mean, I know what it’s like to grow up and not have a lot [because we didn’t].
RW: Um-hmm.
BU: But I was happy. I remember we didn’t have indoor plumbing until I was 10, and we all took a bath in a tub in this kitchen. And we used to churn butter – I hated that job.
[Laughing]
Sit and churn butter. But we all grew up good. I remember when the first TV come out – that was a big thing. That was probably the ruin of us all, isn’t it? That, and computers. It’s pretty easy to sit there and watch something – my big downfall is the History Channel –
[Laughing]
I get into stuff like that.
RW: Well, the folks that come out here and lease the land are these folks that have cattle, but they have no land, or they don’t have enough land?
BU: They don’t have enough land. This place is under a contract: every five years it’s on a renewable contract.
RW: Um-hmm.
BU: When it first come up to do, they put out a flier that this place was coming available, so you bid on it. It’s like, say, “Okay, I’ll give you $20 for that little horse over there.” And if you’re the highest bidder, then you’ve got the –
RW: Um-hmm.
BU: You have that four or five year period (that’s what the lease agreement is). And at the end of the five year period, it is renewable: if I’m satisfied with them, and they’re satisfied with me. If they’re doing things like tearing everything apart, or trying to over-feed me –
RW: Um-hmm? Ranch Family Oral History Project: Boyd Udy Page 27
BU: Then we’re going to have a problem. Because this country out here is so fragile, you over-graze it, and it’s gone.
[58:17]
RW: Right. Do you ever have any problems with people – I mean, it’s a five year lease; do you have any options for getting rid of somebody if they’re abusing?
BU: Um-hmm. Yeah, as I say – if I’m not happy with them, then we can terminate the lease.
RW: Okay. What about your water supply? You’ve got, you mentioned, a lot of water. How do you protect those water wells, or areas, against cattle?
BU: It’s all fenced in.
RW: Okay.
BU: It’s like this pond out here is actually a dam; it’s called the Bar B dam – it’s registered in the state of Utah as a Bar B dam. And the state – they come out and check it every five years. I mean, if it’s eroding a little bit, they make me fix it. They’ve had me put a fence all the way around, which they didn’t at the one time. I haven’t got it completed now. But they didn’t come out and say, “You have to,” but they sure said, “It would sure be nice.”
RW: Right.
BU: But the water is a tough deal in this country. In Utah, you own a right to the water, you don’t own the water. In Idaho you own the water.
RW: Um-hmm.
BU: So, water is a big thing.
RW: How many wells do you have out here?
BU: There’s 24; 24 flowing wells out through these fields. But the ones that – most of them are salted a little bit because there’s a lot of salt water here.
RW: Um-hmm.
BU: There’s the big spring is really a good water spring, and then there’s four other wells that are good (they are down 400 feet), and then there’s two other flowing wells that are fresh.
RW: So the land and the water – folks that are renting that space, they’re renting the water for a five year period – are they bringing their cattle for a period of time? Is it spring to fall, or is it year-round?
BU: No, they come from November to June.
RW: Okay. Ranch Family Oral History Project: Boyd Udy Page 28
BU: And we can fluctuate a little on that, but that’s what the agreement is. And it’s on an AUM, like how many cattle they can have there from this point to this point.
RW: Um-hmm.
BU: And if they choose not to put that many cattle here – like, say they wanted to cut it in half – then I would let them stay longer in the summer. But I try to take everything off here in the summer, and let it grow back.
RW: How many different contractors do you have?
BU: One.
[60:39]
RW: You have one.
BU: Used to have – before the one that’s here now, I had two – and that doesn’t work, because everybody thinks, “Your cake is bigger than my cake.” Or when they count, “See one piece of candy for you, one for me; two for you, and one, two for me; three for you, and one, two, three for me.” So my pile of candy is way bigger than that. That’s what people do. [Laughing]
RW: Oh, yeah! They like everything even-Steven.
BU: They do, and that’s what they all say about cowboy tradition. If you read an etiquette log on a cowboy – there’s some books out there, but like at the Four 6’s, or the big ranch in Texas – the cow boss (which would be me), when you go to work there for them, he catches his horse first, he catches your horses. You don’t go in and catch a horse. He ropes the horse that you’re going to ride that day.
RW: Um-hmm.
BU: And you saddle and everything, you never step on the horse until he steps on. And if you cross in front of him, you go back and drive drag. Or if you do something that’s out of ordinary, you know (they don’t allow that, because the boss is the boss). The movie The Cowboys is a good thing about life. I mean, John Wayne was the Cowboy, he was the boss.
RW: Um-hmm.
BU: And all them little kids – you know how it all come together, and they work together.
[62:25]
RW: How does that work for you, working – you’re the cow boss, so you’re the head, and you work for a company – do you feel like you have run of how you’re going to manage things, or do you get directives? Ranch Family Oral History Project: Boyd Udy Page 29
BU: No, they just tell me, “That’s what we hired you for, take care of it.” And I guess, I have a budget I have to work on, and I never – Cordell is my boss, so.
RT: Really?
BU: Yeah.
RT: Cordell Christensen.
BU: He’s very good with me, but I just figure I work on company time, you know.
RW: Um-hmm.
BU: I always work way over – this is my place, to me; and it’s going to be a sad day when we leave here.
RW: I can imagine; it’s gorgeous out here.
BU: I mean, we’ve grew up here, the kids have grew up here.
RW: How does that work? So, you’re working for ATK, you’re living here, in this beautiful place; when you retire, then you move somewhere else?
BU: Yep.
RW: So the housing comes with the job?
BU: Yeah.
RW: But leaves with the job?
BU: That’s the way most ranches are. Like, this place – when the people that worked the Browning’s (like the foreman here or at Connors Spring) – the people that got the first pick of them places were the foremen. Claude Staples was a foreman out there, he got the first pick – he got to buy that place out there, if he wanted it; Connor Springs, Holmgrens. So, but anymore, in this day and age, you cannot be a cowboy, you cannot be a rancher, you can’t be a farmer unless you have some backing. There’s just no way that you can buy a ranch and make it work; it just don’t pencil.
You can’t buy at this stage; if it doesn’t come down through your genealogy, you know, or your family, and that. And dad’s place – we sold it, but it wasn’t big enough to – he worked for my grandfather, and then he worked for the Potter Brothers Cattle Company. Plus, that’s what he did all his life.
[64:42]
So, when I leave here, we don’t know where we’re going to go. We’ve been looking for a place to buy, but do you buy it, and let somebody rent it and ruin it? We had a place before we came here, and sold it because I don’t like renters. I had an opportunity to go to Ranch Family Oral History Project: Boyd Udy Page 30
Montana anytime I want to work for a friend of mine that owns a big place. I mean, it’s just a matter of going when I want to go.
RW: Do you have anybody else working for you here?
BU: No, just me.
RW: Do you, out here, have – my question just left my head. Rosa do you have anything that I’m not thinking about? Oh, I had something right on the tip of my tongue, and just left.
BU: Ah, I hate that, when my memory gets locked in between – I remember everything, but nothing in the middle.
RW: Oh, I remember.
BU: Okay.
RW: Do you run any of your own cattle out here? Are you allowed to do that?
BU: Yeah, I run a few. And then the horses are mine. So, that’s part of my job, is the horses. But to know the people that we’ve worked with here are usually pretty good. The people that are here right now, the Adams, who are probably the best– they’re the people that own over across from Thiokol – Bob Adams – you know Bob? His brother is. . .
RT: Oh, that’s right.
BU: Ray Adams, and Rex – their grandfather, Bob’s grandpa, John Adams (John Adam Park in Brigham?)
RT: Yeah.
BU: That’s him. Over here where they live, right across from Thiokol – they used to have a great, big rodeo there, and he raised nothing but Palomino horses.
RT: Oh.
BU: And the rodeo was all Palomino horses. And then some of them – in the courthouse you’ll go look, you’ll see the Adams’s photo farming with 100 head of horses.
RT: Wow.
BU: So.
RW: Well, I really appreciate you letting us come out today; it’s fascinating.
BU: I probably rambled on more than I should have, I’m sorry.
RW: No, I appreciate it. I just wonder if after we go off tape, if maybe you wouldn’t mind just letting us walk around with you, and showing some of it. Ranch Family Oral History Project: Boyd Udy Page 31
BU: No problem.
RW: That’s great. Well, is there anything – I usually like to end the interview, you know – what does ranching mean to you? What do you think the future of ranching is?
BU: Ranching to me is a dream come true; it’s my life. I mean, what does every little boy want to be? He wants to be a cowboy, okay – or a fireman (but I don’t like fire, so I’m a cowboy). And it’s funny how you’ll take – you’ll go to places and at a dude ranch, how many people go ride horses or something?
I have a friend in Dubois, Idaho (he was a world champion saddle bronc rider), and the ranch was not making it. They had a lot of ground up there by Turpin Meadows, and outside of West Yellowstone, and they just weren’t making it because it’s such harsh country up there. So they did the city slicker deal up there – where you come in, and you spend a week, and ride. And he’s a cowboy, and he likes [to talk] a lot of bull behind him (kind of like Larry the Cable Guy).
[Laughing]
[68:01]
He likes to talk, and he can joke. But he will tell these rich people – I mean, you have models, and that, from New York coming out – and he’s telling this one girl, he was telling me that he says, “You know, that Palomino horse you rode today, he bucked me off yesterday, and you rode him.” (And this horse is so dog-gentle that anybody could ride it.) But he builds it up, and she goes home [she thinks she is a cowgirl], they go out in the wilderness: they camp in a teepee, and they have a canvas wrap they shower in and stuff. The models, and that and love that. The people from back east – they pay a lot for that.
For example – like, you can take your old chaps or hats to Jackson Hole and sell them. They’ll give you a brand new hat for your old, wore out, greased up hat (so they look the part), you know. My wife makes me throw mine away, because they get stinking.
[Laughing]
RT: They want a scented one.
BU: But as far as I think ranching now days – I don’t think – if you’re not established, or can get some help to get started, you can’t make it. It’s just not there, because everything is too expensive. Ground – this country is about 500 bucks an acre; and for one cow in this country, you need at least 15 acres – for one cow.
RW: How much do have to work with – since this is only deeded ground, do you have a lot of people who are running on –
BU: BLM ground? Ranch Family Oral History Project: Boyd Udy Page 32
RW: BLM, or Forest – they’ve got a lot of – they’ve got a Range Con, or somebody working with them – do you have anything besides the water issue, with people coming in and inspecting issues with the dam? Do you have anything like that with your property?
BU: No. No, no.
RW: Just your dam?
BU: Private land you don’t have that. That’s like up the canyons, and that – where you run on the – like Logan, or Temple Mountain?
RW: Um-hmm.
BU: They have cow riders – that’s all their job is, to drive the cows off the creeks, you know.
RW: Right.
[70:09]
BU: And to me, I don’t understand that at all; I mean they were there way before we were. And that creek was okay then; now they drive them off, and that. All they do to make – they make the cattle actually wallow in it more than they would have. If you just give them free run about, they aren’t going to sit and just wallow in it. But you drive them off everyday, and they come back to water – they’re going to make a big mess there. You know its cattle. So I think sometimes the government is wrong [laughs]. I think we’re in trouble; that’s what I think right now.
My kids and your kids, and my grandkids is what I worry about; what are they going to do, you know? How are they going to be able to feel the freedom that I’ve had, getting up everyday, loving my job? No, they’re going to have to go work some place they hate everyday of it.
RW: Do you think ranching will continue?
BU: Oh, yeah. Yeah, but it’s going to be on a big money people – there’s going to be a company always in it. It’s just like in Texas, or just like when Browning’s come in this country – they bought all the little ranches out in our area. This used to be a big community at one time; used to be four schools out here.
RW: Really – right out in this area?
BU: Um-hmm.
RW: What was this area incorporated – what did it have a name? What did folks call it?
BU: This is Promontory, right here; as you go down, it’s Booth Alley, and then Little Mountain, and Little Valley.
RW: And so each of those places had a little community school? Ranch Family Oral History Project: Boyd Udy Page 33
BU: Um-hmm. Yeah, the kids at Promontory went to school down here by our little chapel. Rosa remembers the chapel, huh?
RW: Maybe we can drive down there – is that gone?
RT: It’s gone.
BU: It’s gone – I can show you a picture of it though.
RW: I’d love to see it. Well, thank you very much.
BU: Okay.
RW: I so appreciate it. I’m going to turn this off.
BU: Okay.
RW: And see if you’ll sign a release form.
BU: Sure.
RW: Great.
[End Recording – 72:05]

Click tabs to swap between content that is broken into logical sections.

Ranch Family Oral History Project: Boyd Udy Page 1
RANCH FAMILY DOCUMENTATION PROJECT
TRANSCRIPTION COVER SHEET
Interviewee: Boyd Udy
Place of Interview: ATK Ranch, Promontory, Utah
Date of Interview: May 12, 2011
Interviewer: Randy Williams
Recordist: Randy Williams
Recording Equipment: Marantz digital recorder: model No: PMD660; Shure omnidirectional microphone: model no.MX 183
Transcription Equipment: Power Player Transcription Software: Executive Communication Systems with foot pedal
Transcribed by: Susan Gross
Transcript Proofed by: Randy Williams (13 September 2011); Boyd Udy (1 October 2011)
Brief Description of Contents: Mr. Boyd Udy is the cow boss and ranch manager at the ATK ranch in northern Utah. He talks about his current duties, his past occupations over the years, and ranching in general.
Reference: RW = Randy Williams (Interviewer)
RT = Rosa Thornley (Interviewer)
BU = Boyd Udy (Interviewee)
NOTE: Interjections during pauses or transitions in dialogue such as “uh” and starts and stops in conversations are not included in transcribed. All additions to transcript are noted with brackets.
TAPE TRANSCRIPTION
[00:01]
RW: I’m going to wear these [headphones], just so I can hear –
BU: Okay.
RW: what the machine is hearing. Ranch Family Oral History Project: Boyd Udy Page 2
BU: That’s fine.
RW: So I’m going to be like Fox 13. Okay.
BU: So do you want me to continue what I was telling you about?
RW: Let’s just start, really quick –
BU: Okay.
RW: And we’ll do that. I just want to get the tag. So, it’s the 12th of May, 2011. We’re out here at the ATK Ranch.
BU: Yeah.
RW: I’m not sure what the home ranch, here, is called?
BU: That is – ATK Ranch.
RW: ATK Ranch.
BU: Um-hmm.
RW: With Mr. Boyd Udy – thank you so much.
BU: You’re sure welcome.
RW: Appreciate it; and I’m Randy Williams, with Rosa Thornley. And we’re just going to look – we started off-tape talking a little bit about the history of the place. But before we go back to that, I just thought maybe we could get a little background information on you: your full name, birthday, where you were born, a little about your background.
BU: Okay. I was born in Tremonton [UT], grew up in Fielding. I was born in 1947, 06/06/47 – that’s what that – D Day? Isn’t it D Day, I think?
RT: I don’t know.
BU: Yeah, I think it is. But, yeah I grew up in Fielding. My father has always been involved in ranching and farming. We grew up on a small farm with cattle and horses. My dad farmed with horses up until – oh, probably 10 years before he passed away.
RW: What was your father’s name?
BU: It was Verl, and he grew up in Riverside, also; that’s where the Udy’s are from. As a matter of fact, dad’s great-grandpa come over on the wagon cart in 1854. And my great-great-grandfather (which was a blacksmith), he came over from England, he was a blacksmith. He actually was Brigham Young’s personal blacksmith, and he built the first plow that was ever used in Utah. Ranch Family Oral History Project: Boyd Udy Page 3
RW: Wow!
[02:00]
BU: So we are all blacksmith people. I have a lot of my great-grandfather’s tools – like some things were built out of wagon wheels, and stuff, you know. It’s kind of interesting, but I think that’s part of why we’re all – we’re all horse-shoers, let’s put it that, farriers (or whatever you want to call it).
RW: Um-hmm?
BU: And we all have a blacksmith background. So, but anyway, I grew up there, went to high school, and then I worked for Swan’s Ranches (which is just up the road from here). They headquartered here in the winter and Monte Cristo in the summer. Through my high school years I would go – when high school let out, I would go up there all summer.
RW: What kinds of things would you be doing?
BU: Was fencing and ranching – moving cows. That’s up by Snowbasin and all that was all just open up there; that was part of the Browning’s, originally, too.
RW: Okay. Now, was this ranch that you were working for in your youth – was that part of the Browning’s [Ranch]?
BU: No, it was sold-off from Browning’s.
RW: Okay.
BU: And so – like I would go to work there June, until school started again – for 100 bucks a month.
RW: Was that pretty good money for a young man?
BU: Well, in [19]’63-5 – yeah, probably good money.
RW: Okay.
BU: But I never went anywhere to spend it, so all my friends stayed around here and made money, and they spent it going dating or whatever. I stayed up there the whole time.
RW: What would be the requirements for you to bring? Did you have to bring your own saddle?
BU: My own tack and they furnish the horses. So, we would – a daily deal up there is you would get up at four o’clock, gather the horses (because back then there was no cross fencing up there), and we controlled the cattle by the salt.
[03:44] Ranch Family Oral History Project: Boyd Udy Page 4
RW: Did you do a rope fence? How did you keep track of your horses?
BU: We had a big horse pasture, and we would take and put a bell on one horse –
RW: Um-hmm?
BU: They was running 50 head of horses up there – you leave one horse in the corral, and you’d go out and listen for the bell, and then gather the rest of the horses. And if you brought them in on a walk, it would take you forever to get there (because they would kind of sneak off); so you’d whoop and holler, and send them in. And they’d all run to the corral – it’s just weird how they do that.
But then you would saddle your horse, and usually take four to five pack horses, and load with salt, and then fencing stuff. And that’s what we did every day. There was myself, and an older gentleman by the name of Jim Bailey that worked for Judge Thornley Swan (who owns that ranch). So there’s a lot of history with the Swans out here.
RW: Would you take your food with you, or would you –?
BU: No, they furnished –
RW: Would pack your lunch?
BU: [No.] They had a headquarters, and it was – well, it was called, “Jones’s Cabin” – that’s where Browning’s headquarters was up there [Monte Cristo]. As a matter of fact, it was just an old, log cabin, and on the outside of the wall there, they had a big ring there –
RW: Um-hmm?
BU: They had a pet bear up there for a lot of years; they had him chained to the [big ring on the wall], and they would feed him and stuff. So there’s a lot of history up there.
RW: Did you see that bear?
BU: I didn’t see the bear, but you could see the claw marks, and all that.
RW: Oh, my goodness!
Who would cook for you? Did they have a man, or woman, or family?
BU: Well, Jim Bailey’s wife was there, or you was on your own.
RW: Um-hmm.
BU: The one summer I spent myself, up there alone. And I stayed just in that little Jones’s Cabin. But when it started to getting fall, you’d move into the sheep camp because the walls – the wind would blow through, and the snow would come through, and it was pretty cold. As a matter of fact, the last year I was up there (in ’66), we went out one night late (gathering some cattle, and that), and a big storm moved in, and I got lost up Ranch Family Oral History Project: Boyd Udy Page 5
there and spent the night out. I mean, I knew the country, but when it snows so hard – you can’t see and you can’t find no direction. It was a long night, sitting out all night.
[06:00]
RW: Ooh, I’ll bet.
BU: So, you know, even the old saying, “Your horse will go home”? He couldn’t find home; it was just one of them bad storms.
RW: How did you eventually find your way back?
BU: [My horse and I] just camped under a big pine tree and waited until morning. The worst thing you can do is keep traveling.
RW: And in the morning light you were able to find your way?
BU: Yeah, it quit snowing and I could recognize places. But it snowed about a foot that night.
RW: We were kind of talking about getting lost in the big, open ranges.
BU: It can happen easy. Everybody says, “Oh, you’ll never get lost,” but I mean, I’d worked there for four years and knew that country, but I was lost.
RT: So how did you survive the night? I mean, if it was snowing I imagine it –
BU: Just got under a big pine tree and lit a fire. I was pretty well dressed for it, but not really. It was one of them storms that just come in over. It was just going to be a sort and gather a few cows I’d found; I was just going to bring them to camp, and next thing I know it’s . . . I got really mixed up – I went the wrong ways for quite a ways. But anyhow; but that’s what happened.
RW: A question about getting hired on – I interviewed a gentleman over in Elko County. He works over at the Spanish Ranch – he’s the Cow Boss out there. And I had asked him, “How do you hire somebody if you’re not going to, you know, go on Craig’s List or something that people look for jobs today?” And he explained a little bit about what he does.
How did you get that job? How did somebody know about you?
BU: My older brother rodeoed (and we rodeoed too, but that was before I was in high school), and he kind of met the judge’s daughter – and they was looking for a hand. So I went to work from not knowing them, but they knew our family from the rodeoing, or whatever, and knew we’d deal with horses, or whatever. So that’s how I got that job.
And then from there, I went in the Army after that and kind of got away from the ranching end of it. I always trained horses, or dealed with horses – and I’m a certified Ranch Family Oral History Project: Boyd Udy Page 6
farrier, so I shod a lot of horses (for a lot of years that’s what I did for extra money, part of my job, I was a farrier). At one time I was shoeing, probably 100 horses a month.
RW: Oh, man.
[08:34]
BU: But I mean, to me it was a good job. Its work, but now it’s a good thing. When I was shoeing, we was shoeing for 15-20 bucks a head; now they’re getting $125. It’s just funny how that changes – and that’s the way the economy is right now. Way back then if you – like watch the movie the Cowboys (with John Wayne) – that’s a good classic to me because it shows them kids, they had to prove their self they could ride rope and move cows. And it was talking that big cattle were worth 15 to 17 to 20 bucks a head.
At this point right now, cattle are higher right now than they’ve ever been. As a matter of fact, when you get a dollar out of a Holstein steer – a dollar a pound – that’s a lot of money. So you’re going to see 800 to 850 for your fall calves weighing 575 to 600 this fall. So the rancher is going to make money this year. But the downfall on the other thing is you’ve got the price of fuel, your hay is really high right now – so everything you do is cost, plus.
RW: Um-hmm.
BU: So when you make money, it seems like everything is up; so after it’s all paid, you’ve got the same amount of – so you have to be pretty careful. I’ve watched a lot of ranchers – and you’ve probably seen that in Park Valley – they make a lot of money, so down the road a ways they buy a new truck, a new tractor, and before long they can’t pay the bills. So I grew up with my dad – he grew up in the [depression], that time he saved everything.
And we worked – dad, and mom, and everybody was on the farm. I remember growing up mom was always out in the field with us. And they had the old balers back then – dad would mow the hay with a number seven McCormick mower, we’d rake with the horses, and then grandpa had an old baler. The women would have to sit on each side of it, and stuff wires through it, and twist it; that’s how it done it. I mean, they had a vent thing they put over their head because of all that dust.
RW: Hmm.
[10:56]
BU: But through the winter, we’d spend time in the barn, straightening them wires and twist them out so they could re-use them.
RT: Um-hmm.
BU: Now they don’t even use nothing like that. [And don’t have time to use it.] Now it’s big stuff, and fast. Ranch Family Oral History Project: Boyd Udy Page 7
RW: Were they smaller bales?
BU: Yeah, they were the small bales.
RW: The small bales?
BU: The 75 pounders.
RW: It’s interesting – my grandparents built a house with used nails that they straightened, and old boards – and you wouldn’t hear of anybody doing that today.
BU: No.
RW: He built a whole, little house out of recycled stuff.
BU: I can believe that. When I came here – Al Sylvester [was the prior foreman for ATK]. In the shop out here was buckets and buckets [of old rust] nails. He never bought nothing new. The old square nuts and bolts and stuff –he would straighten nails and everything; he didn’t throw nothing away. And when I came here, things had to change. [My] bosses said “you’re working for a company now, they want it cleaned up.” So we threw a lot of that stuff away. Because, it takes more time to fix it [with old stuff] but back then, that’s how you did it.
RW: Right. Well let’s bring yourself up to you’re a young man, and you went off to the Army (or the Armed Serviced).
BU: Um-hmm.
RW: When you came back –between that time, and working for this corporation – what were you doing?
BU: Okay, when I got out of the Army, my brother and I – we had some trucks, and we hauled hay for people. We’d go out and buy the hay from the farmers, and deliver it to ranchers, or whatever. And then we kind of got away from that, and then we both went to work at Thiokol. And that’s when I started shoeing horses, because the hauling hay is a lot of work; shoeing horses is too, but I enjoy shoeing horses better than the hay.
[12:50]
Prior to Thiokol, I worked construction for quite a while. I worked for JB Parsons in Ogden, and I run anything from a Caterpillar to a road grader, or whatever. But then I got tired of working through the summers, and having the winter off. So I had an opportunity to come to Thiokol in 1970, and I was just going to work through the winter, and here I am. So 41 years later, I am still working for ATK – Thiokol to me.
RW: So when you say started working for Thiokol – on the ranch?
BU: No, I didn’t come here until ’89. Ranch Family Oral History Project: Boyd Udy Page 8
RW: I see.
BU: But I worked over there – I worked in the development labs, and –
RW: Okay.
BU: And insulation design – we did the insulation for all the rocket motors and stuff.
RW: How did you make the transition from working on the rocket motors, to managing one of the –
BU: The ranches?
RW: Ranches?
BU: This job came open when [when Al Sylvester] was going to retire, and so they put it on the [job] board over there, and you could apply for – there was like 200 people applied for this job.
RW: What was the job announcement? What was the title?
BU: Well, it was just a ranch manager, to come out and maintain it. This place does not own cattle; we just lease this property out to the ranchers. And so we have to make sure you take care of the grounds, you know, do your fencing and then keep track of the number of cows here, your AUMs [Animal Units monthly].
RW: Um-hmm.
BU: So this is a winter pasture, so they come in the fall and leave in the spring.
RW: So ATK owns the land, is there any BLM –
BU: No.
RW: Or any Forest lands?
BU: There’s 7,000 acres here, and it’s all privately owned.
RW: Okay.
BU: The reason that this place is owned by ATK is the water. This is where the water goes to supply all the water over at the plant.
RW: Okay.
[14:46] Ranch Family Oral History Project: Boyd Udy Page 9
BU: And it’s got 24 flowing wells here. And the water from here – there is a big well here; it’s called the Sandall well– pumps up the road. As you’re coming down the road, you’ve probably seen a silver tank there, by Wilson’s?
RW: Yes.
BU: It goes to there, and from there it’s pumped up to the big tower on the mountain. There’s a big tower up there, a million gallon tank up there. And from there, it is gravity fed from there, over to Thiokol. So it’s all pipe. But the spring going into the storage tank up there, it runs 200 gallon a minute out of the spring.
RW: Wow.
BU: So it’s really good water; that’s a lot of water. As a matter of fact, that used to be called the [Smith place] before Thiokol bought the place, Sandals owned this. And prior to Sandals, there was a guy buy the name of Smith, and he used to have a big orchard there, and they used to have apples, peaches, and that. And so all the people at the Golden Spike, when that was over there, when that was a lot of people over there – they would come over and buy all their fruit, and that, from this place. That’s why they – they raised a lot of fruit in this country.
RW: I see.
BU: It’s hard to believe – it’s a desert – but there’s a lot of water here.
RW: Um-hmm.
BU: So that’s the reason that Thiokol owns it.
RW: I see. When Rose and I first got here, you guys were talking a little bit about the pre-history of this place, before ATK, and it sounds like this was probably the Browning ranches?
BU: Yes.
RW: So, can you tell me a little bit about that history, or that connection?
[16:15]
BU: Okay. At one time Brownings owned all this country; they had the money to buy it. They put a foreman at this ranch, there would be a foreman at the Fort ranch, there was one in Howell, and in Connor Springs there’s one; there’s one in Mantua, and one up in Ogden. And so they run a bundle of cattle here; cattle and pigs. As a matter of fact, what’s interesting – from Monte Cristo, they drove 50,000 pigs from there, to here. Can you imagine? And see, there’s a right of way right through Brigham City. There’s still a cattle right of way to drive cattle down, through them highways.
RW: Um-hmm? Ranch Family Oral History Project: Boyd Udy Page 10
BU: But they drove them cattle from there, down to here. And sheep – or pigs; can you imagine herding pigs?
RT: No, not pigs.
BU: I can’t either, but they did that. But it’s interesting, but they all had these little ranches. And Al Sylvester (who was here, working for Brownings) – matter of fact, he got out of the World War because he worked for Brownings. Because Brownings – they developed the Browning’s Arms.
RW: Um-hmm.
BU: The pistol, and the M-1 rifle, and all that. So, he stayed here at that time, but Al would tell me he used to saddle a horse here, and ride from here to Mantua. He would get up at four o’clock, saddle his horse, and ride to Mantua, work cattle, and come back. I mean, you think about that – that’s 40 miles.
RT: So where would he have taken that –
BU: Before the bird refuge, there was a road down there that went straight through, or there was fences. And so, this is kind of neat to me – you’ve heard cowboys talk about their Levi jacket? They’d call it a “jumper.” And so what they’d do, is they’d ride up to a fence, and there was no gates so they’d take their [jacket] off and lay it on the top wire of the fence, back up, and jump it. That’s why they called it a jumper.
RW: Umm.
[18:18]
BU: So they can just keep going, they never have to go find a gate. You imagine people doing that now? Not really. He used to ride a lot of horses here. He claimed that he would wear a saddle out a year. I mean, that’s a lot – he put a lot of miles on horses.
RW: It’s interesting – one of the gentlemen I interviewed, one of the things he always asks people is how long they’ve had their saddle; and if they’ve had it a long time, he doesn’t want to have anything to do with them [laughs]. Because he figures, if you work hard, you’re going to wear out a saddle.
BU: You do; you know you can wear them out. Mine – well, I build saddles, so I never wear one out: I sell it [and build] another one. [I like to build and ride a new saddle.] As a matter of fact, I got a grant from the state of Utah [Arts Council to work with a saddle maker and build a saddle].
RW: Folk Arts Program?
BU: Um-hmm.
RW: Craig [Miller] and Carol [Edison]? Ranch Family Oral History Project: Boyd Udy Page 11
BU: It was a grant from the Utah State – they have folklore and stuff like that; so I got a grant to build saddles –
RW: For the apprenticeship program?
BU: Yep, that’s what it is.
RW: Um-hmm.
BU: And I did that – oh, 15 years ago, I guess.
RW: That’s great.
BU: Because I’ve always built saddles, or whatever, and it just gives me an opportunity to go work with a guy to learn more.
RW: Who did you work with?
BU: With Clay Nicholas, in Corinne. It was a good deal.
RW: That’s awesome.
BU: But from that, I was able to – I ride my saddles, and all my kids have a saddle I built for them; so someday they can’t fight who gets mine.
RW: You’re quite accomplished; I mean, because there’s so much more to ranching than just riding on a horse and checking cattle –
BU: Oh, yeah.
RW: There’s all the gear; and so being able to shoe a horse, and build a saddle, and build a fence – that’s quite a lot of –
BU: Well, you go – as a buckaroo anywhere – if you go somewhere, it’s not if you can ride a horse; you’ve got to be able to repair something – you’re out somewhere, you’ve got to fix it. You’ve got to shoe a horse, because it’s like your car without a tire. And, you’ve got to be a half a mechanic, you’ve got to . . . know a lot about chemicals (for your cattle), and what you can use, and what you can’t use; you half got to be part of a vet. Because we do stuff [like doctor cattle], c-sections and all that – you can’t afford to have the vet do it, [you do it yourself].
[20:46]
RW: When you made the transition out here, did you still have children at home – you and your wife?
BU: Um-hmm. Ranch Family Oral History Project: Boyd Udy Page 12
RW: So, how was that transition, coming? Were you more in – were you living right in Tremonton?
BU: Right in Tremonton. I just come out of a divorce; my wife was just out of a divorce. So that was in ’88. Then in ’89 I got this job. And when I brought my wife out, Kris (who is my wife right now), she says, “I’m not living out here,” because it’s a long ways. We call it “70 miles for a gallon of milk.” If you forget the milk, by the time you drive 35 miles back in, and back – it’s 70 miles for a gallon of milk.
So, but anyhow – she loves it here; she hates the drive. We had the little branch out here – we was really a tight community. And we kind of lost [our little branch church] – nothing against [the Church] – we just have progress is all. [But it really hurt our community.]
RW: Tell me a little bit about that – you’re talking about a LDS branch?
BU: Yes.
RW: Tell me a little bit about that – what are the boundaries? Who all would go? What was the –?
BU: It was just Promontory, right here. There was a few came from – the Paulsen’s would come on out. And then there was the people down on the point; so at one time, there was maybe 40 members. [Speaking to Rosa] You guys used to come out here all the time.
RW: Where did you meet? Did you have a meeting [house]?
BU: We had a chapel down here; it would hold like 54 people. And so everybody had a ton of jobs, because there was – I was in the branch presidency, so I taught the young men from there on up, all through their years. And my wife was in the young women’s. It was fun.
RW: Did you have any children here, with you?
[22:41]
BU: Yep, I did; I had three. I had my oldest boy and Kris’ two children.
RW: Did the kids go into Tremonton to school?
BU: Yes.
RW: On a school bus, or did you have to run them in?
BU: No, when we first moved here, there was enough children here that the bus picked them up here. And then it got down to just our kids, so I’d have to drive to Connor Springs with them, night and morning. So, we’d get up, and they’d have to get on a bus at 6:30 [am]. So it was tough. And from living out here, they didn’t get to be in sports, and all Ranch Family Oral History Project: Boyd Udy Page 13
that, because they just couldn’t. They had to come home, and – but it’s not a bad thing; they all know how to work.
And they’ve went without a lot of things, but I don’t know that that’s a bad thing. They all know how to ride a horse; they all know how to work. My dad was a teamster, and I’m a teamster; I like to drive horses, and my kids all know how to harness a horse (which is something a lot of people don’t even have a clue). But it’s been good.
RT: So, when you talk about the kids – is Tyrell involved out here, in the ranch?
BU: He helps me a lot, yeah. He’s working in Ogden right now, down to – for Weber County. So he drives from here to Ogden – but he likes it here. And he’s a good help; he’s a good farrier.
RT: Where did you learn? Did you apprentice under someone?
BU: I did, but my father was the biggest one. I was 12, and dad was busy, and he always shod our horses. And I said, “My pony is sore footed.” And he said, “There’s the tools, go to work; you’ve watched me enough.” And so I just started from there, and then he helped me along (but I had to prove to him that I was willing to do it). And so I shod horses, and then I went to Utah State, and I went to California for awhile and shod with a guy. And just – that’s where I got it.
[24:44]
It’s an art. It’s like anything – it’s like painting to – you have to have a want to do it. And some people it’s very easy for them, some people it’s a lot of work, it’s really hard. For me to try to teach Tyrell was a job, because it’s a feel thing, you can’t just – like you watch kids shoe horses, and the first thing they push really hard on a rasp, or you know, they know how to trim flat – the harder you push, the harder work it is, and it doesn’t do good. So it’s just an art. It’s like building a saddle; there’s a lot into a saddle, more than people think there is. If you’re going to ride it all day, you want it to be comfortable [laughs].
So, that’s kind of where we come from. But when we moved here the kids, and since I been here I do the cattle for the Utah Cow Cutting Association.
RW: What does that entail?
BU: The Utah Cow Cutting Association, it’s all over Utah and Wyoming, they have five shows a year, I have to get the cattle lined up. And that’s my job, is the cattle. So I’d go down with my kids – used to use my kids because they could make a little money, and they met a lot of nice people from it.
But we’d take the cattle to the show. Bart Sorensen (from Howell) and I work together. He does the trucking, and I go and take care of the cattle. And so the cutting – we’ll use, maybe in the fall we’ll use 3,000 head of cattle; so we have to sort these cattle off, check for bad eyes, no lame, or whatever. Then you put them in a [cutting pen]: there’s ten Ranch Family Oral History Project: Boyd Udy Page 14
cutters in a class, and they use three cows per cutter (so there’s 30 head of cattle). So we‘ve got to make sure them 30 head cattle. What it is, is cow cutting like that, you take a cow, and you separate it and keep it away from the herd. And so from that, the cow has got to be sound, or whatever – it’s a money sport and the cow cutters have a lot of money that do it, usually. And it’s a great sport – it’s like polo; rich people have fun ways [laughs]. But still a lot of the cowboys play that game, or whatever.
We [have done it] through the years. And from that my kids have meet a lot of people. And then we high school rodeoed – that was part of the highlight of my life is my kids going to high school rodeo.
RW: What’s your daughter’s name?
[27:24]
BU: Jessica. But we pull in my old, wore out Chevy truck, and an old, wore out trailer. And other kids and their dads, they’ve got their trainers there, and their fancy trailers, and that. But we could compete with them, so it was fun for us. And my kids all enjoyed it, and they met a lot of friends that they wouldn’t have met otherwise.
RW: One of the things I’ve noticed, interviewing ranchers, is the distance – a neighbor could be a long way away, but you’re still neighborly, and throughout the whole state (a lot of times), ranch families – because of 4-H, or rodeo, or fairs – seem really –
BU: Yeah. A lot of it is just like at the fair – and where Rosa’s from Park Valley, she knows. When the fair was on, everybody went to the fair, and stayed – didn’t they, pretty well? All the kids used – did you stay in there, the school?
RT: I was raised in Tremonton; my dad was from Park Valley.
BU: That’s right.
RT: But I mean, the place just empties out that week of the fair; nobody –
BU: Yeah, you just lived there, didn’t you?
RT: Nobody’s left in Park Valley.
BU: And that’s the way the high school rodeoing was. And it’s interesting how high school rodeo – it was always – I think it was started in ’61 (the association). When I was in high school, in ’63 to ’65. . . The high school rodeo in Utah was started at Box Elder County fairgrounds, in Tremonton. It started out as a three day event – that was it. Now they rodeo every weekend, them kids. I mean, anymore to take your kid and go high school rodeo, you’re spending a lot of money because you have to go to so many rodeos to qualify for state.
RW: Hmm. Ranch Family Oral History Project: Boyd Udy Page 15
BU: But at that time they wouldn’t let us call it the high school rodeo; we was the Utah Championship Rodeo, because they said it was too rough of a sport. We had to fight it, but anyhow, they let it go back into it. It’s not as tough as football; I mean, to me rodeo is dangerous, football is dangerous, anything is dangerous. But if you’re pretty well prepared, you have a better chance of not getting hurt. It’s like if you’ve never ridden a horse, or something, you need to be prepared; you just can’t get on, you know, with no direction.
So I think the state of Utah is like – it’s like Texas, they have so many rodeos that Utah is number two in the world for high school rodeo people. Same with Texas.
RW: That’s interesting, I didn’t know that.
[30:09]
BU: Yeah, it is. It’s a cool thing. There’s – what is there, 21 affiliates to it right now? So it’s a big deal.
RW: What all events did your kids participate in?
BU: Tyrell – he was going to be a bull rider, but he decided that wasn’t fun [laughs], which is good. They pretty well did the team roping and the cow cutting. [Jessica just cow cutting.]
RW: Hmm.
BU: When I grew up we rodeoed, I rode saddle broncs and bulls and then bull dogged a lot. As a matter of fact, I won the state bull-dogging championship in ’65. But that was back then, we bull-dogged old red, bawly cows [laughs]. But that’s how that’s changed.
But my life has been around a horse – I mean, I get on a horse everyday as it is, now. That’s my love, okay – or drive a team. I feed with a team in the winter. Do I have to? No.
RW: What is your team made up of?
BU: They’re Belgian-Haflinger crosses, because I didn’t need a great, big team, and I wanted a smaller team. And it works really good for us, but it’s just because I have a love for it. My father was that way. As a matter of fact, I am driving with his harness.
RW: Hmm.
BU: My father would have been 91 this year; he bought that harness when he was 15 – so its 76 years old, and it’s still in as good of shape as when dad bought it. You’ll think this is funny, but every morning I harness that team in the winter – I know my father is in the barn, and he says, “That ring on that horse is crooked.” (Because he is terrible about that.) So I haven’t harnessed them right yet. But he is always in the barn, telling me I need to straighten it or something. Ranch Family Oral History Project: Boyd Udy Page 16
RW: What do you do to keep it supple? What kind of treatment to you give it?
BU: You know the biggest thing on a harness will last a long, long time because harness leather is built with a wax covering, and it’s oiled. You have to keep them oiled, and that, to keep them supple. But the biggest thing is use.
RW: Hmm.
BU: What’s the worst thing for leather is just hanging, and it dries out. But like, dad – when we grew up, every fall, the harness had to go to be [cleaned and oiled] – they would heat up a barrel of oil, and it was harness oil back then (you can’t buy it now), but they would heat it up under a big milk container (or a washtub) –
RW: Um-hmm.
BU: And then they would dip it in and let it soak, and then let it hang and drip out.
RW: So what do you do today?
[32:54]
BU: I heat the oil up – first of all I take it to the car wash and clean it really good – that’s the secret to leather.
RW: Really?
BU: Yeah. If you have a piece of leather that’s really dry and you say, “Well, I’ll oil it up, and I’ll soften it.” Well, really it won’t; it will still break. Maybe you can find a piece of old leather in an old barn, or something, and bend it and it will break? You take that, and put it in some warm water, and let it kind of get the moisture back into it. [Then oil it.]
RW: Um-hmm.
BU: Leather is just like our skin, you’ve got to get some moisture in it first, right? So the moisture softens it up; let it almost dry, and then put oil on it.
RT: What’s the oil made out of?
BU: Actually, the oil – pure neatsfoot is what it is, is the oil that is taken out of the leather when they tan it. That’s why you [put] a natural component back in. A lot of people use pure virgin oil, because it’s natural oil. Your concentrated oils they actually harm leather more than they help them. So you want to make sure you use a pure neatsfoot, or whatever. But dirt and dust is the worst thing on saddle’s leather.
RW: So that’s why you’re washing it at the carwash – to get the dirt off?
BU: Yeah, yeah it cleans it. But yeah, I’m pretty proud of that old harness.
RW: I’d like a picture of that. Ranch Family Oral History Project: Boyd Udy Page 17
BU: It’s out in the barn.
RW: I’d like a picture of you at the carwash.
BU: Oh!
[Laughing]
RW: People will see you drive in–
BU: Oh, [laughs] that’s ironic because I have a friend that (he’s in Arizona now), he was up in this country, up to Sherwood Hills [in Sardine Canyon], and they had that wagon ride– that chuck wagon ride. [And I would help with the horses and drive.]
RT: Um-hmm.
BU: Well I used to go up there every summer, and help him drive the horses up there.
RW: Was it the Havilands?
BU: Yeah, yeah; Shane and Troy.
RW: Uh-huh.
BU: They’re really good friends of mine.
RW: Are they?
BU: Yeah; matter of fact, Shane helps me with the cow cutting all the time.
RW: Does he?
BU: Yeah. They are pretty good people.
RW: They are good people.
[35:05]
BU: Shane is one of these guys (he trains a lot of horses) he’s the only one that I would recommend to somebody. If you send a horse to Shane Haviland, you’re going to pay for 30 days riding, you know, a month’s riding? You will get 30 rides. Most of these trainers they saddle them for 10 minutes, and charge you for, you know – it’s wrong.
RW: I love his place out there. I took a group of people with the American Folklore Society here, a few years back, and we always do tours. And one of the stops we went is out to Shane’s place.
BU: He’s just a cool guy, isn’t he? Ranch Family Oral History Project: Boyd Udy Page 18
RW: Yeah.
BU: Yeah, he’s rodeoing right now, [laughs] big time. As a matter of fact, I owe him one [good cussing!]
[Laughs]
He conned me into judging the queen contest at Logan. And you know, I thought, “I’ll judge a queen contest,” and being dumb, or whatever, I didn’t think about this change from when I’d judge queen contest. It used to be like the fair – you’d go in, and they’d go to the queen contest, the girls would bring their horse in, they’d saddle them up, and they’d run a riding pattern, and wave at the crowd. And that’s what you’d judge them on.
Now, is leather dresses, and the whole ten yards; I felt right out of place because I was there with Miss Rodeo Wyoming, Miss Rodeo Utah, Miss Rodeo Idaho, and the head director of the Wyoming high [laughs] school rodeo. And then there’s this rancher (me) sitting over there.
RW: [Laughs]
BU: But it worked alright. But to me that’s a change that’s – really the girl that (in my opinion) a rodeo queen should be a girl that can ride, rope, whatever. That’s what it used to be. Now it’s – they have to be able to ride, but they also have to spend a lot of money to be part of the game.
RW: What do you mean by that?
BU: They used to wear a pair of Levi’s and a nice shirt, and that would work; now you’ve got to have $2,500 to $5,000 leather dresses, and you’ve got to be a model, and all that stuff. So, it was a good experience for me, but the girls – they’ve been really schooled on what to do. But I did trick them on a trick question. I asked them, “How tight does your cornet band have to be on your horse?”
And some of them says, “Well, let’s see – if it hangs below its ears, and it can’t be too tight, or it gets a headache.”
Cornet band goes right around the hairline on his hoof; and it can’t be tightened, that’s just how it is. That’s just a Cornet band, so.
RW: They didn’t even know?
[37:51]
BU: Some of them did, yeah; I was shocked. As a matter of fact, out of the ten girls they all knew what it was, but one girl. The one girl I figured would know that was the girl that didn’t.
RW: Did you see some good riders? Ranch Family Oral History Project: Boyd Udy Page 19
BU: Yes, yeah. They are good riders. But they speak really well; they’re eloquent in their speech. “You’re at the Bridgerland Rodeo, what are you going to do to introduce the rodeo to the people?” So they have to come up with something, you know. They had a hat, and it was around Easter time, you know. So they had to come out and put it together for a talk for their – I don’t know what you want to call it now. But it was interesting to me.
RW: Out here is there any – it sounds like (from what you said earlier) you’re working for a corporation, but you’re working with individual ranchers, who are [leasees from ATK.]
BU: Yes ma’am.
RW: Leasing the land; how does that work? What is that equilibrium like?
BU: Well, normally in our country you pay an AUM (which is cow-per-month), okay?
RW: Um-hmm.
BU: And in our country, you’ll spend anywhere from $20-25 a month, per cow. And that’s to go on the greens, and that’s if you don’t feed them any hay. And the way we set it up here, is a cow takes 30 pounds of feed a day to maintain her through the winter. So like, if I had the cows out here, and they’re on straight grass (which normally we do), they pay $30 or 25 (or whatever we set up that amount was). And if say we have a lot of snow, and that, and we feed hay like we do –
RW: Um-hmm.
BU: So, say we feed a quarter of hay, the feed – we cut the price of the feed down a quarter. So like, rather than pay 40 bucks, for example, you’re only paying 30 bucks for the ground because you’re feeding them that other 10 bucks worth of hay.
RW: Are they doing their own hay, or is it –?
BU: Yeah – no, they bring their own hay.
RW: Okay.
BU: And that’s what this place is so great about, is there’s – we supplement with hay. A lot of people use supplement tubs, or cake block, or a mineral, and that. But in our deal out here, with the Adams’ we’ve found through experience, you can find top-quality hay, and feed them 10 pounds of hay cheaper, and they’ll do better than if you try to just give them minerals.
So it’s like you drinking a lot of mineral water. You’ve still got to have the roughage to get your ruminant and that going. And so with the team, we go out through these fields, where it’s kind of tooly, and it’s kind of not really easy to access. But I can get there with a team, so we go feed in that tall grass. So it maintains my fields, by getting rid of the old, Ranch Family Oral History Project: Boyd Udy Page 20
tall wheat grass that I need to get clipped off. So we control that with the cattle, with a little bit of feed.
And actually, the cattle do better with a little alfalfa. [You see] them all the time, so you see them come close to calving. You go out and feed and if there’s a cow off, you know you got trouble.
[41:24]
RW: So are the folks that are leasing the ground – you sound like you’re feeding and watching – do they have any cowboys out here?
BU: Yeah, they do, they do. I really – my job is just to maintain the fences, take care of this place, and make sure they go where they’re supposed to go. I really don’t have to help them unless I want to.
RW: I see.
BU: But that’s the part I like; I like to calf cows. And so you’ll hear my – I have a cowbell on my wagon, so when we leave the yard the cows know we’re coming. It’s an old trick I learned when I was running horses. It’s amazing – you go out there and rattle that bell, and all the cows will be at the gate.
RW: It’s amazing, bells, I think. We did an exhibit a year and a half ago, and traced back animal bells almost 5,000 years that people have been using bells on an animal.
BU: Yeah.
RW: It’s amazing to me.
BU: It is; you look at all – there’s a bell on everything.
RW: Um-hmm.
BU: I mean, if you got a knot-headed horse, hang the bell on him and he gets better about it.
RW: Um-hmm.
BU: [Laughing] [Put a bell on one horse so you could wrangle them in the horse pasture by the bell sound.] We had one old horse that we had, that we couldn’t put the bell back on him – he got too smart, and he wouldn’t move his head – he’d just stand there and wouldn’t ring it.
[Laughing]
You know, so you couldn’t find him. [Laughing] Its funny how at every ranch, everybody has the old fooler horse. Judge Swan [the ranch I worked on] he was a judge for the Utah State Supreme [Court] – and so he’d bring [to his ranch] a lot of [people] like, Hod Sanders (Clover Club potato chips) – bring that kind of people up there, that Ranch Family Oral History Project: Boyd Udy Page 21
had never been around animals. And he’d say [phone ringing] “Go catch Old Fooler.” And so we’d go catch him. And depending on the person – we had Old Fooler [for them] and then we had an old mule that we’d put them on. And Old Fooler would usually buck somebody off, you know. It’s just what cowboys do, you know.
RW: Pranksters?
BU: Yeah, prankster. And then they had an old mule that –
[Ringing sound]
You could get on him and you could ride him. And you could never turn him, when you was on him. If you wanted to turn him, and go right – you had to get off, turn him right, and then he’d go straight. Everywhere you went, he’d go straight, but you could never turn him when you was on him. So he was funny. He’d just go right through the ponds, and that – whatever; he wouldn’t turn. But we’d put people on – it’s funny how they do that.
RW: [Laughing]
BU: Cowboys are – cowboy families are quite pranksters.
RW: Yes.
[44:04]
RW: Why do you think they’re pranksters?
BU: Cowboys? It’s just – I think it’s no different than any other person: we like to laugh. I think farm people, or ranchers, or country people have more enjoyment in laughing, than city people. I don’t think we’re quite as serious on life as we’re out there to make a living, but we also can enjoy life a little. I know I always said that, “Dad always had time to stop and talk to the neighbor.” I catch myself too busy to stop and talk – which I really am not.
And that’s just like – a good example is our little branch down here. The guy that has the animals for the movies. His name is – it slipped me; I’ve got it written down. But I had him come out and talk at our church. And he was talking about he had to have the lambs, and the goats, and the pigs, and all this. And they needed a pure white lamb for that deal, and he couldn’t find one. The next morning his black-faced ewe had a pure white-faced lamb for that movie. But I mean that kind of gives you a testimony of the church.
But anyhow, what was ironic as he was talking about these animals that our Heavenly Father has put down here for us to use, and how they use in them the movies. Well, the neighbor down here, Gary Pettit (he doesn’t attend church), and he had a heifer in trouble – she was a hip locked, and he didn’t have a pair of pullers. So he comes to church and wants to borrow my pullers, so we just left church in our suits, and go and pull a calf, and then come back to church. I mean, that’s just the way farm people are. Ranch Family Oral History Project: Boyd Udy Page 22
RW: Uh-huh.
BU: I don’t think you would see that in town. They wouldn’t go out there in their suit and help somebody.
[46:14]
RW: Rosa and I were kind of talking about that on the way out here, just the tight, inner-connection.
BU: Yeah.
RW: And I wonder – I’ve always wondered about the pranking, and we were talking a little bit about the chivaree that’s done over in Park Valley – just seems to me the tighter, and the more you rely on each other, you have to almost test each other a little bit, to make sure you can rely on that person – if they’re going to take a joke.
BU: True.
RW: Or if they’re not going to take a joke; maybe that’s not the person you’re going to be able to rely on all the time.
BU: Yeah – you want to know which one is going to blow up and hit you [laughs]. But that’s just part of being a cowboy. When I worked for that one ranch, Jim Bailey, we’d leave at four o’clock in the morning and go salt, we’d be gone until – sometimes even until dark coming down. But coming down the trail, he said, “The last one home has to wash the dishes” or “The last one there has to wash the dishes.” So no matter what, we’d have to climb a tree, or I’d get off and lock the gates, or undo a gate or something so we could get through, and then he’d take off, and he’d go to the next gate and wait for me to get there and unlock it for him. And then he’d always beat to me to the house; so I had to do the dishes all the time.
But that’s just the way [laughs] he was, always a prank. Or like, going up into that ranch – there was one road in, and there was like four gates you have to cross. Then he would drive up there, and I’d get out and undo the gate, and he would drive up to the next gate (which was a quarter mile away) and wait for me. And I never did get smart enough to jump on the back of the truck – because he would take off too quick. But he always was pulling a prank on us.
[47:55]
My dad was a prankster; he liked to laugh a lot. That’s how I always found my father –
RW: Follow the laughter?
BU: Yeah, we’d go to a rodeo, and I could find my dad because I could hear him laughing. And one thing I will say about my father and my mother: they are my father and my Ranch Family Oral History Project: Boyd Udy Page 23
mother. You’ll never hear me calling them, “The old man,” or, “the old lady,” ever. And I’m thankful for my dad to instill that in me.
RW: What was your mother’s name?
BU: Edith. She grew up in Malad. She came from quite a wealthy family up there. At one time they owned all of Devil’s Creek. But her folks died when she was quite young, and so she grew up just with people, you know; just relatives, whatever.
RW: What was her family name?
BU: Her name was Owens. She was related to all the Evans up there in Malad. But mom was a hard worker. One thing I can say for my dad – we would always go to a rodeo, or wherever – he might have wore out boots on, but we had new ones.
RW: Hmm.
BU: And mom always made sure we had plenty to eat. We didn’t have [wealth]; we didn’t know we [were poor.] [Laughs] Christmas at our house was if you got an apple, and an orange, and a banana, and new pair of underwear, you was pretty happy. But we didn’t care. There was five children in my family.
RW: Are any of your – you mentioned your older brother was involved in the ranch at some point, ranching – have any other siblings been involved?
BU: No, they don’t do the ranching part. They raise races horses; so they’ve always done that. I did it for a lot of years; that’s my father right there [picture on the wall]. That’s the last picture of his team, running to Pocatello (that’s where he passed away). But it’s something – it’s a sport, it’s a great thing. And we’ve done quite well at our family. As a matter of fact, my nephew won the World this year, which is a good thing.
RW: That’s a great thing!
BU: So dad has always instilled – and anybody will tell you, when my father was around, and he passed on to us – our horses are always clean, and they’re always groomed. If you want to get your fanny kicked with my dad, just go somewhere with your horse dirty. That was a no-no, period. I mean, they had to be brushed off, clean. He used to spend hours – I remember (this is before he passed away; well, before we put him in a nursing home – he had Alzheimer’s) he had a work team. As a matter of fact, it’s a team that Troy Haviland had, that he worked over there – the grey team.
RW: Um-hmm?
BU: That was my dad’s last team. They drove across the stage and all that [at Logan at the Festival of the American West]; the thing that they had on the theater.
RW: Yeah, okay. Ranch Family Oral History Project: Boyd Udy Page 24
BU: That was dad’s last team. But he used to spend hours out there, just brushing and currying them. He used to use a curry comb, and a brush, then he’d tap the curry comb on the brush, and the brushes were always wore out where he’d hit them. But he would spend hours, and hours; that was his thing. And he drove that team up until he just couldn’t do it no more. But we should have made him keep doing it because when that – he wanted to sell the team, he said he didn’t need them. And we should have never done it, because that’s when he really went downhill.
[51:29]
But he went on that Centennial wagon ride, and that was cool stuff. So we, I guess, with my grandfather, was all horsemen. All my family, all my dad’s family are horse people.
RW: What kind of horses did your grandfather, or your father ride?
BU: They rode a lot of work cross horses, you know. They had a lot of shire work horses; they had a lot of Persians and Belgians. And then they would cross and get a lighter shire horse; they rode a lot of shires. Because back then, a work team was like – my horse is as big right now, as that team were. But they would drive them, and then ride them also. We grew up on work horses; that’s how we rode, until we started rodeoing, and then we had to have a little better horses, a little faster. And I guess I still have one mare that’s half draft, so. And I raise colts every year, so she’s got a cross in her [like dad did].
RW: How many colts do you raise a year?
BU: I used to raise a lot of them. The stallion I have, I showed him a lot, we’ve won a lot with him, and it’s good. But the colts in the horse industry now is not worth nothing. A good, broke horse is worth a lot, but a colt’s not worth nothing because they stop the meat market on horses.
And I love horses too, but I think what’s the worst – to see them, like my neighbor up the road here (I’m not going to mention names) his horses are starving to death. I hate that. But what’s the most humane? Let him starve to death up here, or send him to a meat market where they send them to France, and eat them? I mean, I don’t want to eat a horse.
What’s the hardest on an animal – to see one that’s so suffering, he can’t get up or down– do you just let him suffer every day, or do you put him down, or what? I don’t know? I put my down, so. When they get to where they can’t get around, then we dig a hole, and we have a burial. But you see – how many animals have you seen that their backbones are sticking up, and they [need to be put down].
RW: Umm, um-hmm.
RT: Yeah.
[53:48] Ranch Family Oral History Project: Boyd Udy Page 25
BU: You know, dogs, cats and – that’s my wife has 900 cats because she brings everything home that’s out there.
[Laughing]
Quit your laughing, Rosa!
[Laughing]
RW: Yeah, there’s nothing sadder to see an abused, or malnourished animal.
BU: Didn’t He make the animal on the fifth day?
RT: Is that right?
BU: Which day did He make them?
RT: I don’t remember.
BU: I think it’s the fifth day, isn’t it?
RT: Just before us?
BU: Um-hmm, or the fourth day; one of the two. I can’t remember. There’s your trick question; I want an answer for Sunday if I get to church.
[Laughing]
RT: Oh, I’m on it.
[Laughing]
BU: I think it’s the fifth day.
RW: Well, when you’re out here doing the managerial – has that been a natural evolution for you? Or was that something that you felt like you, when you first started, one of the things that you needed to learn? Or did you feel like the previous experience working for ranches, and doing all the other, kind of associated things to ranching, you were prepared? Or how was that transition to come here and work?
BU: It was different because I was a working cowboy all the time before this. Now you have [ranch knowledge] and you’ve always kept records, whatever, but now you’ve got to be in charge, and run under another direction. Like the people I work for at ATK, they never check up on me, they just tell me to do it. So they must trust me. But I work on a budget. Every ranch has a budget you’ve got to stay with – it’s like a household; you have to stay under a budget, if you don’t, you’re in trouble. That’s what’s wrong with the world right now, is we all have a bigger “want” list than we do a “need” list. Ranch Family Oral History Project: Boyd Udy Page 26
And that’s why you see most of your old ranches that still you run in today – they have been run under a tight rein. I look at the Adams’s, I look at the Sandals, the Roses, you know, and the Palmers – all of them out there. I think the ones that are still running now, have kept that tradition: to only do what you need, and not what you want.
[56:09]
Any more, we don’t have the time to – I mean, Al Sylvester [the ranch manger before me] rode a horse everywhere. But, like to go check waters and that – if you have a lot of them, it’s quicker to jump on the four-wheeler and go check it and get back [because it is faster today]. But when dad was growing up, when I was growing up in school, I mean, I know what it’s like to grow up and not have a lot [because we didn’t].
RW: Um-hmm.
BU: But I was happy. I remember we didn’t have indoor plumbing until I was 10, and we all took a bath in a tub in this kitchen. And we used to churn butter – I hated that job.
[Laughing]
Sit and churn butter. But we all grew up good. I remember when the first TV come out – that was a big thing. That was probably the ruin of us all, isn’t it? That, and computers. It’s pretty easy to sit there and watch something – my big downfall is the History Channel –
[Laughing]
I get into stuff like that.
RW: Well, the folks that come out here and lease the land are these folks that have cattle, but they have no land, or they don’t have enough land?
BU: They don’t have enough land. This place is under a contract: every five years it’s on a renewable contract.
RW: Um-hmm.
BU: When it first come up to do, they put out a flier that this place was coming available, so you bid on it. It’s like, say, “Okay, I’ll give you $20 for that little horse over there.” And if you’re the highest bidder, then you’ve got the –
RW: Um-hmm.
BU: You have that four or five year period (that’s what the lease agreement is). And at the end of the five year period, it is renewable: if I’m satisfied with them, and they’re satisfied with me. If they’re doing things like tearing everything apart, or trying to over-feed me –
RW: Um-hmm? Ranch Family Oral History Project: Boyd Udy Page 27
BU: Then we’re going to have a problem. Because this country out here is so fragile, you over-graze it, and it’s gone.
[58:17]
RW: Right. Do you ever have any problems with people – I mean, it’s a five year lease; do you have any options for getting rid of somebody if they’re abusing?
BU: Um-hmm. Yeah, as I say – if I’m not happy with them, then we can terminate the lease.
RW: Okay. What about your water supply? You’ve got, you mentioned, a lot of water. How do you protect those water wells, or areas, against cattle?
BU: It’s all fenced in.
RW: Okay.
BU: It’s like this pond out here is actually a dam; it’s called the Bar B dam – it’s registered in the state of Utah as a Bar B dam. And the state – they come out and check it every five years. I mean, if it’s eroding a little bit, they make me fix it. They’ve had me put a fence all the way around, which they didn’t at the one time. I haven’t got it completed now. But they didn’t come out and say, “You have to,” but they sure said, “It would sure be nice.”
RW: Right.
BU: But the water is a tough deal in this country. In Utah, you own a right to the water, you don’t own the water. In Idaho you own the water.
RW: Um-hmm.
BU: So, water is a big thing.
RW: How many wells do you have out here?
BU: There’s 24; 24 flowing wells out through these fields. But the ones that – most of them are salted a little bit because there’s a lot of salt water here.
RW: Um-hmm.
BU: There’s the big spring is really a good water spring, and then there’s four other wells that are good (they are down 400 feet), and then there’s two other flowing wells that are fresh.
RW: So the land and the water – folks that are renting that space, they’re renting the water for a five year period – are they bringing their cattle for a period of time? Is it spring to fall, or is it year-round?
BU: No, they come from November to June.
RW: Okay. Ranch Family Oral History Project: Boyd Udy Page 28
BU: And we can fluctuate a little on that, but that’s what the agreement is. And it’s on an AUM, like how many cattle they can have there from this point to this point.
RW: Um-hmm.
BU: And if they choose not to put that many cattle here – like, say they wanted to cut it in half – then I would let them stay longer in the summer. But I try to take everything off here in the summer, and let it grow back.
RW: How many different contractors do you have?
BU: One.
[60:39]
RW: You have one.
BU: Used to have – before the one that’s here now, I had two – and that doesn’t work, because everybody thinks, “Your cake is bigger than my cake.” Or when they count, “See one piece of candy for you, one for me; two for you, and one, two for me; three for you, and one, two, three for me.” So my pile of candy is way bigger than that. That’s what people do. [Laughing]
RW: Oh, yeah! They like everything even-Steven.
BU: They do, and that’s what they all say about cowboy tradition. If you read an etiquette log on a cowboy – there’s some books out there, but like at the Four 6’s, or the big ranch in Texas – the cow boss (which would be me), when you go to work there for them, he catches his horse first, he catches your horses. You don’t go in and catch a horse. He ropes the horse that you’re going to ride that day.
RW: Um-hmm.
BU: And you saddle and everything, you never step on the horse until he steps on. And if you cross in front of him, you go back and drive drag. Or if you do something that’s out of ordinary, you know (they don’t allow that, because the boss is the boss). The movie The Cowboys is a good thing about life. I mean, John Wayne was the Cowboy, he was the boss.
RW: Um-hmm.
BU: And all them little kids – you know how it all come together, and they work together.
[62:25]
RW: How does that work for you, working – you’re the cow boss, so you’re the head, and you work for a company – do you feel like you have run of how you’re going to manage things, or do you get directives? Ranch Family Oral History Project: Boyd Udy Page 29
BU: No, they just tell me, “That’s what we hired you for, take care of it.” And I guess, I have a budget I have to work on, and I never – Cordell is my boss, so.
RT: Really?
BU: Yeah.
RT: Cordell Christensen.
BU: He’s very good with me, but I just figure I work on company time, you know.
RW: Um-hmm.
BU: I always work way over – this is my place, to me; and it’s going to be a sad day when we leave here.
RW: I can imagine; it’s gorgeous out here.
BU: I mean, we’ve grew up here, the kids have grew up here.
RW: How does that work? So, you’re working for ATK, you’re living here, in this beautiful place; when you retire, then you move somewhere else?
BU: Yep.
RW: So the housing comes with the job?
BU: Yeah.
RW: But leaves with the job?
BU: That’s the way most ranches are. Like, this place – when the people that worked the Browning’s (like the foreman here or at Connors Spring) – the people that got the first pick of them places were the foremen. Claude Staples was a foreman out there, he got the first pick – he got to buy that place out there, if he wanted it; Connor Springs, Holmgrens. So, but anymore, in this day and age, you cannot be a cowboy, you cannot be a rancher, you can’t be a farmer unless you have some backing. There’s just no way that you can buy a ranch and make it work; it just don’t pencil.
You can’t buy at this stage; if it doesn’t come down through your genealogy, you know, or your family, and that. And dad’s place – we sold it, but it wasn’t big enough to – he worked for my grandfather, and then he worked for the Potter Brothers Cattle Company. Plus, that’s what he did all his life.
[64:42]
So, when I leave here, we don’t know where we’re going to go. We’ve been looking for a place to buy, but do you buy it, and let somebody rent it and ruin it? We had a place before we came here, and sold it because I don’t like renters. I had an opportunity to go to Ranch Family Oral History Project: Boyd Udy Page 30
Montana anytime I want to work for a friend of mine that owns a big place. I mean, it’s just a matter of going when I want to go.
RW: Do you have anybody else working for you here?
BU: No, just me.
RW: Do you, out here, have – my question just left my head. Rosa do you have anything that I’m not thinking about? Oh, I had something right on the tip of my tongue, and just left.
BU: Ah, I hate that, when my memory gets locked in between – I remember everything, but nothing in the middle.
RW: Oh, I remember.
BU: Okay.
RW: Do you run any of your own cattle out here? Are you allowed to do that?
BU: Yeah, I run a few. And then the horses are mine. So, that’s part of my job, is the horses. But to know the people that we’ve worked with here are usually pretty good. The people that are here right now, the Adams, who are probably the best– they’re the people that own over across from Thiokol – Bob Adams – you know Bob? His brother is. . .
RT: Oh, that’s right.
BU: Ray Adams, and Rex – their grandfather, Bob’s grandpa, John Adams (John Adam Park in Brigham?)
RT: Yeah.
BU: That’s him. Over here where they live, right across from Thiokol – they used to have a great, big rodeo there, and he raised nothing but Palomino horses.
RT: Oh.
BU: And the rodeo was all Palomino horses. And then some of them – in the courthouse you’ll go look, you’ll see the Adams’s photo farming with 100 head of horses.
RT: Wow.
BU: So.
RW: Well, I really appreciate you letting us come out today; it’s fascinating.
BU: I probably rambled on more than I should have, I’m sorry.
RW: No, I appreciate it. I just wonder if after we go off tape, if maybe you wouldn’t mind just letting us walk around with you, and showing some of it. Ranch Family Oral History Project: Boyd Udy Page 31
BU: No problem.
RW: That’s great. Well, is there anything – I usually like to end the interview, you know – what does ranching mean to you? What do you think the future of ranching is?
BU: Ranching to me is a dream come true; it’s my life. I mean, what does every little boy want to be? He wants to be a cowboy, okay – or a fireman (but I don’t like fire, so I’m a cowboy). And it’s funny how you’ll take – you’ll go to places and at a dude ranch, how many people go ride horses or something?
I have a friend in Dubois, Idaho (he was a world champion saddle bronc rider), and the ranch was not making it. They had a lot of ground up there by Turpin Meadows, and outside of West Yellowstone, and they just weren’t making it because it’s such harsh country up there. So they did the city slicker deal up there – where you come in, and you spend a week, and ride. And he’s a cowboy, and he likes [to talk] a lot of bull behind him (kind of like Larry the Cable Guy).
[Laughing]
[68:01]
He likes to talk, and he can joke. But he will tell these rich people – I mean, you have models, and that, from New York coming out – and he’s telling this one girl, he was telling me that he says, “You know, that Palomino horse you rode today, he bucked me off yesterday, and you rode him.” (And this horse is so dog-gentle that anybody could ride it.) But he builds it up, and she goes home [she thinks she is a cowgirl], they go out in the wilderness: they camp in a teepee, and they have a canvas wrap they shower in and stuff. The models, and that and love that. The people from back east – they pay a lot for that.
For example – like, you can take your old chaps or hats to Jackson Hole and sell them. They’ll give you a brand new hat for your old, wore out, greased up hat (so they look the part), you know. My wife makes me throw mine away, because they get stinking.
[Laughing]
RT: They want a scented one.
BU: But as far as I think ranching now days – I don’t think – if you’re not established, or can get some help to get started, you can’t make it. It’s just not there, because everything is too expensive. Ground – this country is about 500 bucks an acre; and for one cow in this country, you need at least 15 acres – for one cow.
RW: How much do have to work with – since this is only deeded ground, do you have a lot of people who are running on –
BU: BLM ground? Ranch Family Oral History Project: Boyd Udy Page 32
RW: BLM, or Forest – they’ve got a lot of – they’ve got a Range Con, or somebody working with them – do you have anything besides the water issue, with people coming in and inspecting issues with the dam? Do you have anything like that with your property?
BU: No. No, no.
RW: Just your dam?
BU: Private land you don’t have that. That’s like up the canyons, and that – where you run on the – like Logan, or Temple Mountain?
RW: Um-hmm.
BU: They have cow riders – that’s all their job is, to drive the cows off the creeks, you know.
RW: Right.
[70:09]
BU: And to me, I don’t understand that at all; I mean they were there way before we were. And that creek was okay then; now they drive them off, and that. All they do to make – they make the cattle actually wallow in it more than they would have. If you just give them free run about, they aren’t going to sit and just wallow in it. But you drive them off everyday, and they come back to water – they’re going to make a big mess there. You know its cattle. So I think sometimes the government is wrong [laughs]. I think we’re in trouble; that’s what I think right now.
My kids and your kids, and my grandkids is what I worry about; what are they going to do, you know? How are they going to be able to feel the freedom that I’ve had, getting up everyday, loving my job? No, they’re going to have to go work some place they hate everyday of it.
RW: Do you think ranching will continue?
BU: Oh, yeah. Yeah, but it’s going to be on a big money people – there’s going to be a company always in it. It’s just like in Texas, or just like when Browning’s come in this country – they bought all the little ranches out in our area. This used to be a big community at one time; used to be four schools out here.
RW: Really – right out in this area?
BU: Um-hmm.
RW: What was this area incorporated – what did it have a name? What did folks call it?
BU: This is Promontory, right here; as you go down, it’s Booth Alley, and then Little Mountain, and Little Valley.
RW: And so each of those places had a little community school? Ranch Family Oral History Project: Boyd Udy Page 33
BU: Um-hmm. Yeah, the kids at Promontory went to school down here by our little chapel. Rosa remembers the chapel, huh?
RW: Maybe we can drive down there – is that gone?
RT: It’s gone.
BU: It’s gone – I can show you a picture of it though.
RW: I’d love to see it. Well, thank you very much.
BU: Okay.
RW: I so appreciate it. I’m going to turn this off.
BU: Okay.
RW: And see if you’ll sign a release form.
BU: Sure.
RW: Great.
[End Recording – 72:05]